. 


UCSB  LIBRARY 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  REFORM; 
A    LECTURE 

DELIVERED    BEFORE    THE    BEREAN    INSTITUTE, 
IN     THE 

BROADWAY  TABERNACLE, 

NEW-YORK,    JAN.    20,    1843; 
WITH 

FOUR  DISCOURSES, 

Upon   the  same  general  topic, 
DELIVERED  IN   NEW-YORK  AND  BROOKLYN. 


BY    REV.    E.    H.    CHAPIN, 

Charlestown,   Mass. 


NE  W-YORK: 

C.    L.    STICKNEY,    130    FULTON   STREET. 

1843. 


[Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1843,  by 

C.L.  STICKNEY, 

in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  Southern  District 
of  New-York.] 


PREFACE. 


THE  only  reason  that  is  offered  for  the  publication 
of  this  work,  is,  that  it  discusses  questions  of  imme- 
diate interest  to  our  country  and  our  age — questions 
which  are  connected  with  the  great  Principle  of  RE- 
FORM. The  Lecture,  and  the  Discourses  which  fol- 
low it,  will  be  found  to  discuss  this  principle,  more  or 
less.  They  were  originally  delivered  without  any 
reference  to  each  other,  but  in  the  order  in  which  they 
are  arranged  in  this  volume,  will  be  found  to  present 
something  like  a  connected  series.  The  Lecture  dis- 
cusses the  main  doctrine  of  Reform,  as  it  is  agitated 
in  our  day.  The  first  Discourse  and  those  that  suc- 
ceed it,  take  a  Christian  view  of  Reform,  which,  as  is 
hinted  in  the  Lecture,  is  directly  based  upon  the 
Gospel.  The  first  Discourse  presents  the  Moral  and 
Benevolent  Associations  of  our  day  as  the  great  point 
of  union  for  all  the  Christian  forces.  The  second 
exhibits  and  condemns  that  spirit  of  Intolerance  which 


opposes  this  union.  The  third  maintains  that  the 
law  of  Christianity  in  each  individual  soul,  is  the 
only  guaranty  of  the  success  of  these  Associations,  and 
represents  them  as  auxiliary  to  a  higher  end — the  cul- 
ture of  the  individual  man.  The  last*  Discourse 
endeavors  to  show  the  manner  in  which  Christianity 
proceeds  to  effect  this  great  work. 

Enough,  if  this  Book  may  accomplish  its  share  of 
good,  and  aid,  though  very  humbly,  in  the  up-build- 
ing of  God's  kingdom  upon  the  earth  and  in  the  human 
soul.  To  that  end  may  His  blessing  rest  upon  it. 

E.H.C. 

CHARLESTOWN,  Mass.,  Feb.  1843. 

*  It  was  the  original  design  to  publish  only  the  Lecture,  and  the 
four  Discourses  which  immediately  follow ;  but  in  the  progress  of  the 
work,  it  was  found  there  would  be  room,  in  the  first  allotted  size  of 
the  book,  for  another  Discourse,  so  the  fifth  has  been  added,  which 
is  designed  to  carry  out  the  subject  still  farther,  and  show  what  is 
the  Great  Law,  that  shall  elevate  and  purify  the  soul  of  each  man 
and  thus  bring  about  the  END  of  all  true  Reforms. 


THE 

PHILOSOPHY  OF  REFORM. 

THE  most  potent  word  of  the  present  day — 
the  word  that  is  most  significant  in  its  meaning, 
and  extensive  in  its  influence — is  REFORM. 
Often  abused,  often  misapprehended,  the  deli- 
rium of  the  monomaniac,  the  mock-word  of  the 
ignorant  and  the  heartless ;  yet,  in  some  sense, 
every  mouth  utters  it,  and  every  soul  is  thrilled 
by  it.  It  is  spoken  fearfully  by  the  timid 
Conservative,  who  crouches  in  the  shadows  of 
the  Past,  or  arrogantly  assumes  that  all  goodness 
is  enshrined  at  the  altar  where  he  worships.  It 
blisters  the  lips  of  the  narrow  Fanatic  who, 
vaunting  boisterously  of  freedom,  is  the  slave  of 
a  deformed  idea.  It  is  discussed  by  indolent, 
good-natured  men,  who  philosophize  in  easy 
chairs,  and,  sitting  at  their  tables  of  abundance, 
fervently  hope  that  no  one  starves.  And  it 
gushes  up  from  free,  strong  souls,  whose  feet 
upon  the  mountains  bring  messages  of  joy,  who 
have  wrought  in  the  night-time  with  Faith  and 
Prayer,  and  who,  looking  forth  upon  earth's 
wide  millions,  bid  them  take  courage  and  rejoice 
— for  yonder  kindles  the  rising  day. 
1 


6  PHILOSOPHY    OF    REFORM. 

But  now,  let  us  consider  seriously,  what  is  the 
Idea  that  lurks  under  this  word  Reform.  Is  it  a 
legitimate  Idea — an  Idea  founded  in  the  nature 
of  things  ?  And,  again,  what  is  Reform  ?  Is  it 
a  principle  which  as  Philanthropists  and  Chris- 
tians, we  can  adopt,  and  strive,  and  hope  for  ? 
The  discussion  of  these  questions,  will  furnish 
what  we  have  to  say  at  this  time,  upon  THE 
PHILOSOPHY  OF  REFORM. 

And  the  first  thing  that  I  shall  advance,  is 
the  fact  that  Reform,  if  not  an  innate,  is  at 
least  an  indwelling  principle  in  the  soul  of 
every  man.  There  lies  there  a  presentiment, 
often  dim  and  unheeded,  it  may  be,  yet  a 
presentiment  of  something  better,  an  idea  of  a 
greater  good  to  be  obtained,  which  renders 
him  dissatisfied  with  his  present  state,  and 
urges  him  to  seek  another.  I  have  used  a 
word  here  which  I  wish  to  convey  a  precise 
meaning.  Presentiment ; — not  a  hope  only,  not 
a  mere  wish,  not  a  phantasy ;  but  a  revelation 
of  what  lies  beyond  us,  given  in  glimpses  suffi- 
cient to  show  us  that  something  is  there.  We 
may  not  say  that  the  soul  first  reaches  out  after 
that — this  might  be  a  self-created  delusion ;  but 
that  first  reaches  out  to  the  soul,  and  so  it  is  a 
prophecy — a  shadow,  it  may  be,  yet  a  shadow  of 
things  to  come,  a  shadow  that  falls  from  actual 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    REFORM.  7 

and  external  objects.  And,  I  say,  this  seems  to 
be,  universally,  an  indwelling  principle  in  the 
human  soul.  Your  primitive  man,  who  seeks 
to  clothe  his  nakedness,  though  it  be  in  the  un- 
dressed skin  of  the  wild  beast  that  he  has  just 
torn  from  his  lair,  or  to  build  him  a  shelter, 
though  it  is  only  a  bark  hut, — he  acts  upon  this 
idea  of  Reform.  It  seems  a  wide  interval  be- 
tween such  a  condition  and  our  refinement  and 
civilization,  yet  every  stage  of  that  interval  has 
been  passed  through  gradually.  But  why  should 
man  take  the  first  step,  without  this  idea  of 
something  better,  this  presentiment  of  a  practical 
good  ?  And  when  the  first  step  was  taken,  why 
would  men  take  the  second,  and  the  third,  and 
so  on,  without  a  repetition  of  the  idea?  And 
how  would  men  keep  progressing,  if  this  idea 
were  not  in  constant  action,  ever  urging  them 
forward  ?  If  human  progress  is  a  truth,  that 
progress  is  according  to  a  /ato,  as  much  as  the 
march  of  the  waters,  or  the  evolution  of  geolo- 
gical changes  is  according  to  a  law.  And  this 
law  is  found  in  the  idea  of  improvement — in  other 
words,  in  the  principle  of  Reform.  If  as  a  race 
of  beings  we  are  made  to  progress,  how  can  we 
do  so  unless  we  alter  existing  institutions,  and 
seize  upon  new  and  better  ?  If  every  custom,  or 
opinion,  is  suffered  to  remain  precisely  where  it 


8  PHILOSOPHY    OF    REFORM. 

is  now,  we  shall  be  stationary ;  or,  rather,  we 
shall  retrograde,  we  shall  grow  woTse — for  the 
spring  of  health  is  action,  and  our  life  becomes 
tainted  and  stagnant  if  we  do  not  move. 

Moreover  :  this  principle  of  Reform  accounts 
to  me  for  many  of  the  evils  that  lie  around  us. 
The  vegetable  world  is  limited  in  its  develope- 
ment,  and  soon  arrives  at  perfection.  But  in 
the  world  of  mind  it  is  not  so.  No  perfect  unin- 
spired man  has  yet  appeared  on  the  face  of  the 
earth.  No  perfect  state  of  society  has  yet  ex- 
isted, save  in  the  dreams  of  Plato  and  Sir  Thomas 
More.  And  what  we  have  received  has  been 
all  conflict,  uncertainty,  darkness  mingled  with 
light,  the  evolution  of  a  better  state  of  things 
only  after  a  painful  struggle — and  then,  perhaps, 
a  retrograde  movement,  or  a  stationary  period, 
which  has  discouraged  men  who  trusted  in  the 
good  and  the  true,  and  given  occasion  for  others 
to  say — "  there  is  no  such  thing  as  human  pro- 
gress." But  this  has  'all  been  wisely  ordered. 
The  tree  has  grown  up  at  once  to  a  perfect  tree, 
because  beyond  its  own  mere  being  there  was 
no  ulterior  object  to  secure.  But  for  man  there 
is  an  ulterior  object  to  secure,  beyond  his  mere 
existence.  He  is  not  only  to  be  but  to  knoiv — 
not  only  to  obey  laws,  but  to  become  "  a  law 
unto  himself,"  and  he  can  only  do  this  by  ea> 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    REFORM.  9 

pericnce  and  by  labor.  So  he  must  have  some- 
thing to  undergo,  he  must  have  something  to 
overcome.  If  that  which  he  needs  comes  di- 
rectly to  his  hand,  he  makes  no  effort  to  get  it, 
and  therefore  no  strength  is  developed  in  him. 
If  there  is  no  obstacle  to  overcome,  no  danger  to 
brave,  then  there  will  be  no  self-confidence, 
which  depends  upon  our  consciousness  of  pos- 
sessing powers,  with  which  we  cannot  become 
acquainted  until  something  occurs  to  call  them 
into  exercise.  So  it  is  well  that  man  is  not 
made  perfect,  but  that  he  should  grow  to  perfec- 
tion. He  finds  the  good,  by  passing  through  the 
evil,  and  appreciates  it.  The  weak  sinews  be- 
come strong  by  their  conflict  with  difficulties. 
Hope  is  born  in  the  long  night  of  watching  and 
tears.  Faith  visits  us  in  defeat  and  disappoint- 
ment, amid  the  consciousness  of  earthly  frailty, 
and  the  crumbling  tombstones  of  mortality. 

But  you  perceive  that  the  key  which  explains 
all  these  hieroglyphics  of  evil,  is  the  principle  of 
Reform.  If  the  world  of  mind,  if  man  and  so- 
ciety, grew  up  in  each  age  as  they  did  in  the 
preceding  ages,  exhibiting  the  invariable  same- 
ness and  the  limited  developement  of  the  trees 
of  the  forest,  then  our  individual  and  social  evils 
would  be  inexplicable.  We  might  well  ask — 
"  why  was  not  the  moral  world  created  perfect 


10  PHILOSOPHY    OF    REFORM. 

after  its  kind,  as  the  vegetable  world  is  created 
perfect  after  its  kind  ?"  But  now,  the  enigma 
is  solved.  There  is  given  to  man  a  principle  of 
Reform.  He  is  made  to  learn,  to  knoiv,  and  to 
progress.  He  is  not  merely  to  be,  like  the 
zoophyte  and  the  oyster,  of  which  we  can  say 
that  they  have  sense,  and  that  is  all ;  but  he  is 
to  do,  to  create,  to  enjoy.  Poor  earth-worm  as 
he  now  seems,  he  is  to  become  a  UNIT  in  God's 
world,  as  distinct  and  as  complete  as  a  star. 
From  this  denied  organism,  writhing  with  pain, 
marred  by  passion,  heel-trampled  and  neck- 
yoked,  are  to  be  developed — by  labor,  by  battle, 
by  prayer, — an  ever-growing  Intelligence,  and  a 
quenchless  Love,  that  shall  mean  something  and 
possess  something  in  the  boundless  universe  of 
the  Deity,  when  the  trees  may  no  longer  grow, 
nor  the  rivers  run,  nor  the  stars  shine,  because 
they  shall  have  fulfilled  their  mission  and  passed 
away. 

This  principle  of  Reform,  then,  is  a  legitimate 
principle,  because  it  is  that  which  urges  men  to 
contend  with  existing  evils,  which  evils  appear 
to  exist,  as  one  great  object  at  least,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  creating  energy  and  virtue — for  the  pur- 
pose of  exciting  ideas  and  establishing  principles, 
which,  if  not  all  immediately  practical  and  useful, 
are  necessary  to  the  developement  of  the  perfect 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    REFORM.  11 

man.  Accordingly,  we  find  whenever  Reforms 
are  agitated,  that  great  questions  are  always 
raised,  discussion  is  held  upon  the  most  vital 
interests  of  humanity,  the  distinction  between 
right  and  wrong  is  clearly  brought  out,  men 
throw  themselves  back  upon  principles,  they 
abandon  temporal  institutions  for  eternal  ideas, 
they  go  behind  the  formal  letter  to  the  living 
spirit.  All  of  which  is  by  no  means  unaccom- 
panied with  evil.  We  shall  have  vagaries 
enough.  Optimism  and  Ultraism ;  theories  spun 
with  hairs  ;  schemes  of  primeval  innocence  that 
provide  not  even  a  fig-leaf;  speculations  that 
look  gorgeous  and  symmetrical,  but  that  shall 
vanish  when  we  seek  to  touch  them  "  wn-miracu- 
lously  enough,"  as  Carlyle  would  say,  because 
they  are  made  out  of  cloud-land,  and  glitter  with 
the  prismatic  colors  of  fancy.  Yet  all  this  goes 
to  establish  what  I  have  said ; — that  there  is  a 
legitimate  function  for  the  principle  of  Reform, 
which  is  the  great  idea  that  urges  us  to  contend 
with  existing  evils,  and  to  seek  a  good  that  as 
yet  lies  beyond  us ;  and  these  very  evils  exist 
in  order  that  the  good  may  be  suggested.  And 
when  men  are  roused  by  them  to  action,  they 
will,  naturally,  discuss  the  right  and  the  wrong 
of  things,  and  very  naturally  go  too  far,  and 
entertain  crude  notions  ;  and,  by  the  law  of  re- 


12  PHILOSOPHY    OF    REFORM. 

action,  pass  from  one  extreme  to  the  other.  It 
is  a  natural  consequence  that  the  opposition,  the 
ultraism,  and  the  indifference,  to  which  I  alluded 
in  the  commencement  as  being  rife  in  our  age, 
should  now  prevail.  Owing,  as  I  think,  to  the 
diffusion  of  knowledge,  to  a  better  perception  of 
Christianity,  and  to  the  quick  communion  of 
thought  that  abounds,  the  present  age  is  what  it 
is — peculiarly  an  age  of  Reform.  And  as  it  is 
now,  it  has  always  been  in  the  world's  history. 
Wherever  Reform  has  been  agitated,  there  al- 
ways have  been  those  who  have  set  themselves 
against  it  as  the  fruitful  germ  of  all  evil — those 
who  have  perverted  it,  and  carried  it  into  the 
worst  excesses — and  those  who  have  stood  lazily 
by,  and  wished  it  well,  without  moving  one 
pampered  limb  to  aid  the  wrork.  But  our's,  I 
say,  is  peculiarly  an  age  of  Reform — an  age  of 
far-reaching,  intense  effort.  Never  so  has  the 
great  cause  of  humanity  been  pleaded — never  so 
have  men  looked  below  the  formal,  the  time- 
serving, the  vestments  of  things,  to  central  and 
primary  ideas.  Never  with  such  bold  and  con- 
fident hands  have  men  laid  hold  of  existing  in- 
stitutions ;  and  though,  with  the  true  that  will 
stand  amid  all  the  shaking,  I  believe  that  much 
that  is  false  must  yet  stand  for  some  time  also, 
still  I  think  that  glorious  and  beneficial  results 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    REFORM.  13 

will  grow  out  of  this  mighty  agitation.  And  lam 
not  afraid  because  of  the  evils  that  accompany 
these  things,  for  I  know  that  they  naturally  ap- 
pear ;  they  are  the  concomitants  of  every  period 
of  Reform.  I  know  that  ultraism  and  passion,  and 
sensuality  and  selfishness,  are  mixed  up  in  all 
this  commotion.  I  know  it  is  likely  if  some 
proposed  Reforms  were  realized  in  their  present 
shape,  we  should  have  a  Pandemonium,  instead 
of  an  Eden.  I  know  that  mere  abstractionists, 
as  they  sow  in  dreams,  will  reap  shadows.  I 
know  that  it  is  idle  to  suppose  that  every  man 
who  broaches  something  novel  has  therefore  got 
something  good,  or  that  every  little  clamorous 
clique  is  formidable,  and  based  upon  some  im- 
portant idea.  But  I  say,  once  more,  these  are 
the  attendants  of  every  Reformation,  and  with 
all  their  fermentation  and  all  their  shams,  they 
prove  that  a  great  reality  is  working  at  the  bot- 
tom ; — they  could  not  be,  did  not  that  reality 
exist.  Of  all  the  great  Reforms  of  our  day,  I 
know  hardly  of  one,  that,  freed  from  the  imper- 
fections of  individual  judgment,  and  reduced  to 
its  fundamental  idea,  is  not  based  on  righteous- 
ness and  truth. 

Thus  we  see  the  legitimacy  of  Reform.  It  is 
not  a  sin,  like  anarchy — it  is  not  a  delusion,  like 
fanaticism.  It  belongs  to  the  nature  of  things. 


14  PHILOSOPHY    OF    REFORM. 

It  is  likely  to  urge  its  claims  and  to  agitate 
society,  so  long  as  evil  and  imperfection  exist. 
The  only  difficulty  is  to  define  Reform — to  as- 
certain its  true  limits,  its  legitimate  work.  The 
veriest  Conservative  in  the  world  may  say — 
"  Well,  I  believe  in  Reform  ;"  but  the  movement 
that  is  taking  place  never  happens  to  be  the  Re- 
form that  he  believes  in.  The  wildest  schemer 
answers  that  he  goes  "  for  nothing  but  Reform ;" 
although  he  brandishes  his  torch  over  a  magazine 
that  at  the  first  explosion  will  blow  up  him  and 
thousands  more,  and  shatter,  perhaps,  the  whole 
framework  of  society. 

We  are  led,  then,  at  this  point,  to  discuss  our 
second  question — What  is  Reform?  I  answer 
to  this,  that  Reform  comprises  both  the  ideas  of 
purification  and  of  advancement.  Purification 
implies  a  restoration  to  a  normal  condition,  or  a 
remodeling  of  what  we  already  have — but  not 
the  addition  of  any  thing  new.  In  order  to  purify, 
we  may  have  to  go  back,  instead  of  forward — 
back  to  a  primitive  state  of  things,  and  instead 
of  increasing  our  possessions  may  have  to  reduce 
their  number.  But  this  alone  does  not  include 
the  whole  principle  of  Reform,  since  there  must 
be  not  only  an  abolition  of  what  is  wrong,  but 
advancement — advancement  in  what  is  right,  and 
true,  and  good.  We  must  ever  acknowledge  the 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    REFORM.  15 

stern  necessity  of  circumstances.  These  con- 
stantly bind  our  attention  to  present  wants  and 
future  requirements,  and  are  ever  placing  man 
and  society  in  new  positions.  We  may  avail 
ourselves  of  experience,  but  we  cannot  go  back 
into  the  Past  to  act.  This  earth  will  carry  us 
and  our's  along  with  it,  as  it  moves  in  its  enor- 
mous orbit.  And  we  are  carried  forward  as 
much  in  time  as  in  space.  We  leave  the  old 
landmarks  of  history,  and  come  into  the  new 
fields  of  experiment — into  a  sphere  that  calls  for 
new  action.  It  may  be  true,  then,  that  in  some 
instances  we  must  go  back,  but  we  go  back  only 
for  principles;  we  must  look  around  us,  and  look 
forward,  for  the  application  of  those  principles. 
We  do  well  to  strip  off  encumbrances,  our  cor- 
ruptions and  absurdities,  and  get  back  to  the 
naked  truth,  since  that  always  remains  the  same 
— but,  when  we  arrive  at  that  truth,  we  shall 
find  that  it  needs  to  be  applied  to  new  circum- 
stances. We  may  find  the  self-same  truth  our 
fathers  used — a  truth  that  we  have  forgotten,  or 
have  never  known  ;  but  we  cannot  act  upon 
that  truth  just  as  our  fathers  did.  The  primitive 
state  of  man  may  have  been  a  state  much  more 
innocent  than  that  in  which  we  are  now  living, 
but  if  we  reform  our  present  condition,  strip  it 
of  its  vices  and  perversions,  we  cannot  live  in 


16  PHILOSOPHY    OF    REFORM. 

all  things  just  as  the  men  in  the  primitive  state 
lived.  Purification,  then,  inasmuch  as  it  implies 
only  an  abolition  of  existing  evils,  or  a  restora- 
tion to  primitive  truths,  does  not  comprehend 
the  whole  principle  of  Reform. 

Another  idea,  then,  comes  in  here — the  idea 
of  advancement,  growth,  progress.  We  must 
purify  but  we  must  also  increase,  we  must  abolish 
but  we  must  also  build  up,  we  must  repent  of 
wrong  but  we  must  also  grow  in  righteousness. 
We  know  not  all  truth  yet.  Our  fathers  did  not 
know  all  truth.  The  top  of  their  Babel  was  not 
half  so  high  as  one  of  God's  own  mountains,  and 
we  can  scarcely  see  beyond  Sirius,  or,  at  best, 
some  dim  nebula  that  hang  upon  the  threshold 
of  the  firmament.  New  manifestations  burst 
upon  us  almost  every  day.  In  the  hallowed 
light  of  memory  lies  the  truth  of  the  past,  but 
our  eyes  look  into  that  gleaming  vista  that  opens 
through  the  horizon  before  us,  and  we  hear  the 
voices  of  Prophecy  saying — "  Forward  !  For- 
ward !  much  is  yet  to  be  revealed."  And  if  we 
would  have  a  true  Reform,  I  say,  we  must  seize 
the  new  truths  as  they  come  and  apply  them, 
as  much  as  we  would  preserve  the  old  truths 
and  apply  them.  Man  and  society  need  not 
only  to  be  purified,  they  need  to  progress  ;  and 
that  is  the  true  Reform,  which,  purging  them 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    REFORM,  17 

from  mighty  and  hoary  evils,  impels  them  for- 
ward with  glorious  developements. 

We  see,  then,  that  in  every  true  Reform,  there 
is  a  conservative  and  a  radical  element — a  resto- 
rative and  a  progressive  principle.  Of  course, 
then,  the  strict  Conservative  and  the  strict  Radi- 
cal are  both  wrong — he  who  would  cling  to 
everything,  and  he  who  would  uproot  every- 
thing. 

My  objection  to  the  strict  CONSERVATIVE  is, 
not  that  he  holds  back  in  the  tide  of  Reform,  but 
that  he  holds  on  to  all  things  just  as  they  are — 
and  not  merely  to  the  good  that  is  in  all  things. 
He  loves  existing  institutions  because  they  hap- 
pen to  exist,  and  for  no  other  reason.  He  loves 
old  customs  because  they  are  old,  and  he  is  very 
comfortable  under  them.  Too  often  when  we 
come  to  analyze  his  conservatism,  the  whole 
reason  of  it  is  found  in  sheer,  downright  selfish- 
ness. He  hates  to  be  disturbed.  If  the  move- 
ment prevails  he  must  move  too,  and  he  dislikes 
the  exertion  and  the  sacrifice.  He  has  got  a 
snug  corner  of  the  world,  and  ample  means  to 
live,  and  surely,  he  thinks,  the  world  is  well 
enough  as  it  is.  It  is  natural  that  he  should  think 
so.  But  the  poor  bondman,  who  labors  in  blood 
and  tears,  thinks  that  the  world  is  not  well 
enough  as  it  is,  and  it  is  evident  that  there  must 
2 


18  PHILOSOPHY    OF    REFORM. 

be  some  other  criteria  than  the  convenience  of 
one  man,. or  of  one  class  of  men. 

Or,  if  the  Conservative  is  not  selfish,  he  is  an 
alarmist,  and  as  much  deluded  as  the  veriest 
fanatic.  He  exercises  no  discrimination.  Every 
plan  that  is  proposed  to  alter  existing  institutions, 
to  him  looks  heretical  and  dangerous,  hecause 
he  will  not  set  himself  to  work  candidly  to  in- 
vestigate the  matter,  but  sees  through  his  preju- 
dices, and  acts  from  his  old  habits  of  thinking. 
At  the  mere  mention  of  the  word  Reform,  vague 
ideas  of  unsettlement  and  confusion  rush  upon 
him;  he  sees  all  things  in  chaos — nothing  but 
licentiousness  and  destruction,  blood  and  flame  ; 
and,  honestly  scared,  no  doubt,  he  vociferates 
from  the  very  depths  of  his  lungs — "  Great  is 
Diana  of  the  Ephesians  !"  This,  you  perceive, 
is  all  clamor  and  assumption.  There  is  no  idea 
either  of  purification,  or  of  advancement.  All 
things  must  remain  as  they  are,  for  they  are  as 
good  as  they  can  be.  And,  moreover,  there  is 
evidently  but  little  knowledge  of,  and  therefore 
no  confidence  in,  the  Truth.  The  strict  Conser- 
vative says  that  Truth  is  in  danger.  It  is  the 
idlest  fear  in  the  world.  It  plainly  indicates  no 
intimacy  with  the  Truth.  He  who  has  com- 
muned with  great  principles,  knows  that  they 
are  everlasting,  and  that  nothing  can  shake  them 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    REFORM.  19 

from  their  orbits.  He  may  deplore  the  licen- 
tiousness that  stalks  abroad  in  the  name  of 
Liberty.  He  may  wonder  at  the  delusion  that 
runs  through  the  multitude  like  a  contagious 
disease.  He  may  mourn  over  the  licentiousness 
and  the  sin  that  must  take  place  ere  the  world 
shall  secure  the  right  and  the  good — at  the  bitter 
draught  that  men  must  drink  ere  they  find  the 
pearl  of  experience  that  lies  at  the  bottom.  But 
he  has  no  fear  for  the  truth.  They  who  are 
alarmed,  lest  the  world  should  be  turned  upside 
down,  have  but  little  reverence,  and  little  faith. 
They  fear  man,  more  than  they  trust  Omnipo- 
tence. The  world  turned  upside  down  !  Why, 
the  world  is  hung  upon  a  balance.  Man  cannot 
move  it.  With  all  his  engines,  with  all  his 
subtle  inventions,  he  cannot  move  it  a  hair's 
breadth.  And  this,  because  it  depends  not  upon 
mechanical  forces,  not  upon  the  law  of  gravity — 
but  because  God  hung  it  there  ! 

My  objection,  then,  to  the  strict  Conservative 
is,  that  he  allows  no  movement,  either  forward 
by  way  of  advancement^  nor  backward  by  way 
of  purification;  but  wants  all  things  to  remain 
as  they  are,  which  nature  will  not  permit,  since 
by  her  laws  all  things  move  in  some  way,  either 
in  growth,  or  decline.  And  I  object  to  the 
Conservative,  because  with  all  his  fears  for 


20  PHILOSOPHY    OF    REFORM. 

Goodness  and  Truth,  he  evidently  knows  but 
little  of  either,  else  he  would  exercise  more  dis- 
crimination, and  while  clinging  to  the  good  would 
let  the  bad  go,  and  thus  be  a  Reformer — and, 
also,  he  would  be  willing  to  trust  truth  in  every 
encounter,  knowing  it  to  be  eternal  and  omni- 
potent. I  object  to  the  Conservative,  because 
he  has  no  faith  in  progress — he  too  often  acts 
from  a  selfish  motive — he  consults  not  his  reason, 
but  his  fears. 

The  Conservative  sometimes  employs  ingeni- 
ous arguments  to  defend  his  position.  But  I 
deem  them  fallacious.  He  says,  that  he  is  will- 
ing to  grant  that  society  is  somewhat  out  of  joint, 
but,  he  asks — "  how  do  I  know  that  you  will 
better  these  things  ?  Your  experiments,"  he 
says,  "  may  be  dangerous.  It  is  a  fearful  thing 
to  tamper  with  the  existing  order.  Your  medi- 
cine may  prove  but  a  quack  nostrum,  and  that 
which  you  give  to  cure  may  only  aggravate  the 
disease."  To  this  I  answer,  that  we  must  act  in 
such  cases  as  we  do  in  other  matters.  Because 
we  sometimes  fail,  we  do  not  therefore  hesitate 
to  make  other  experiments.  Everything  good 
and  great  is  wrought  in  such  trials — it  is  a  law 
of  our  being.  In  this  matter  of  Reform  we  must 
trust  reason  and  common  sense.  We  must  be- 
lieve our  eyes  and  hands  and  intellects.  We 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    REFORM.  21 

may  be  assured  of  the  correctness  of  a  principle, 
of  the  truth  and  right  of  a  plan,  if  we  will.  We 
can  tell  whether  the  bridge  that  shall  cross  the 
stream  is  safe  or  not.  If  it  is  made  of  straw  it 
evidently  is  not — if  made  of  wood,  or  stone,  or 
iron,  it  probably  is.  The  old  quibble  raised  by 
Hume,  as  to  how  we  know  whether  an  article 
presented  to  us  is  what  it  appears  to  be,  is  more 
ingenious  than  sound  ;  if  we  halted  upon  it  we 
should  soon  stop  the  machinery  of  practical  life. 
Although  we  may  be  often  cheated  by  the  false 
and  the  vile,  we  intuitively  know  the  true  and 
the  right — for  the  true  and  the  right  will  be  re- 
cognized and  found  to  be  the  same  the  wide 
world  over.  Experience  furnishes  us  with  many 
criteria,  and  reason  will  supply  many  more. 
We  must  not  be  rash ;  we  must  not  adopt  every- 
thing as  it  comes,  but  compare,  reflect,  examine 
— and  fear  not  the  result.  And  is  it  not  better 
even  to  move  at  a  m/c,  than  not  to  move  at  all  ? 
This  Conservative  argument  was  as  valid  count- 
less ages  back,  as  it  is  now.  And  if  men  had 
heeded  it,  the  race  would  be  now  where  it  was 
countless  ages  ago.  But  they  did  not  heed  it. 
They  took  a  step  forward — a  step  at  a  time,  to 
be  sure — but  still  a  step  forward,  even  though  it 
was  in  the  untried  path  of  experiment.  I  do 
not  like  the  legitimate  bearings  of  this  argument. 
2* 


22  PHILOSOPHY    OF    REFORM. 

It  will  do  as  well  for  the  Grand  Turk  as  for  the 
professed  Republican — it  will  serve  the*  high 
Tories  of  England,  as  well  as  any  Conservative 
in  this  country.  Enough,  that  reason  decides 
after  calm  reflection.  Enough,  that  all  that  in- 
tuitively recognizes  the  Good  and  the  True,  ap- 
peals in  our  bosoms.  Enough,  if  we  have  these, 
to  venture  forward,  even  hazarding  by  experi- 
ment the  issue  which,  at  the  worst,  can  produce 
evils  scarcely  more  aggravated  than  those  which 
already  exist. 

"  But,"  says  the  Conservative,  "  I  have  no 
faith  in  this  doctrine  of  Human  Progress.  It  is 
a  chimera  ;  to  speak  more  coarsely  but  point- 
edly, it  is  a  humbug.  The  race,  to  be  sure, 
seems  to  advance  at  some  points — but  at  other 
points  it  has  retrograded  ;  and  I  do  not  know, 
after  the  account  is  figured  up,  and  the  balance 
struck,  but  that  it  is  best  to  let  all  things  remain 
pretty  much  as  they  are."  Now  Jet  us  clearly 
understand  what  is  meant  by  Human  Progress. 
It  must  be  distinctly  separated  from  the  doctrine 
of  Human  Perfectibility-  That  men  in  this  world 
will  ever  be,  in  all  respects,  perfect,  is  one  doc- 
trine— and  that  men  will  pass  from  lower  degrees 
of  excellence  up  to  higher,  and  maintain  their 
advantage,  is  another  doctrine.  This  last  is  the 
doctrine  of  Human  Progress.  That  our  age  holds 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    REFORM.  23 

an  amount  of  refinement  and  civilization  that 
preceding  ages  did  not  have,  seems  evident. 
We  may  not  see  minutely  how  this  operation  of 
human  progress  goes  on — we  may  not  be  able  to 
trace  the  transfusion  of  the  good  and  the  true 
through  every  particle  and  member.  But  we 
see  the  grand  result.  "  So  the  great  ocean  comes 
on  imperceptibly.  Men  build  their  huts  at  the 
foot  of  some  huge  mountain,  and  till  the  green 
fields  that  spread  out  before  them — thinking 
nothing  so  permanent.  But,  by  and  by,  other 
men  come  thaffway,  and  the  green  fields  are  all 
gone.  The  summer  fruit  has  long  since  been 
gathered.  Where  the  husbandman  found  his 
wealth,  the  fisher  draws  his  support — where  the 
sickles  whispered  to  the  bending  corn,  the  ships 
of  war  go  sheeting  by — and  the  old  mountain 
has  become  a  grey  and  wave-beaten  crag,  a 
landmark  to  the  distant  mariner,  and  a  turret 
where  the  sea-bird  screams. 

But  this  was  accomplished  imperceptibly.  One 
generation  may  not  have  witnessed  the  advance- 
ment of  the  waters — another  may  have  passed 
away  without  noting  it ;  but  slowly  they  kept 
advancing.  And  by  and  by,  all  men  saw  it — saw 
the  grand  result,  though  they  did  not  mark  each 
successive  operation.  So  with  human  progress. 
One  age  may  scarcely  perceive  it,  and  another 


24  PHILOSOPHY    OF    REFORM. 

may  die  without  faith  in  it;  but  we  must  take 
some  distant  period  that  is  not  too  closely  blended 
with  our  time,  and  compare  that  with  the  pre- 
sent, and  in  the  grand  result  we  shall  discover 
that  there  has  been  human  progress. 
A  Still,  some  may  say,  "Yes,  there  has  been 
progress,  but  not  over  the  whole  world — there 
have  been  salient  points,  but  also  retreating 
angles,  and  when  you  speak  of  human  progress 
you  must  appeal  to  the  world  at  large — say,  has 
that  advanced  ?"  I  answer,  that  in  the  world, 
somewhere,  there  has  been  a  constant  tendency 
to  advancement.  Even  the  dark  times  have  been 
seasons  of  fruition — the  middle  ages  nourished 
and  prepared  glorious  elements  of  human  refor-r 
mation.  If  one  nation  has  lost  the  thread  of 
advancement,  another  has  taken  it  up — and  so 
the  work  has  gone  forward  ;  if  not  in  the  race, 
as  a  whole,  at  any  one  time,  yet  in  the  race  some- 
where. But  the  race  is  fundamentally  the  same, 
and  what  may  be  predicated  of  a  portion  of  man- 
kind as  belonging  essentially  to  humanity,  may 
be  predicated  of  the  whole,  and  so  "in  the  ad- 
vancement of  a  portion  of  the  race,  the  whole 
becomes  hopeful.  The  capacity  of  the  race  for 
progress  has  been  demonstrated.  Is  that  capacity 
never  to  be  gratified  ?  Though  the  period  never 
has  been  that  all  the  race  were  at  the  same  time 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    REFORM.  25 

on  the  same  level — who  shall  say  that  the  time 
never  will  come  ?  That  it  never  can  come  ? 
Who  shall  say,  so  long  as  the  capacity  exists, 
how  quick  the  transfusion  of  what  is  excellent 
in  one  portion  may  be  made  through  the  whole  ? 
A  victory  over  the  formal  Asiatic,  grim  and 
bloody  as  it  is,  may  be  one  agent  of  .such  trans- 
fusion. A  triumph  of  machinery  may  help  to 
accomplish  it.  The  steam-car  may  carry  truth 
and  light  over  drifted  deserts  and  frozen  moun- 
tains. The  march  of  opinion,  aided  by  circum- 
stances, may  penetrate  to  lands  that  never  knew 
the  commerce  of  Phoenicia,  or  the  wisdom  of 
Athens — where  Alexander  never  ventured  with 
his  hosts,  and  where  Caesar  turned  back  his 
eagles.  This  is  the  main  point — not  universal 
progress,  but  human  progress- — not  progress  every- 
where^ but  progress  somewhere.  Grant  but  that, 
and  all  humanity  becomes  hopeful — grant  but 
the  capacity,  and  the  doctrine  is  practicable — let 
the  law  be  in  operation  only  at  one  point,  still  it 
is  a  laic,  and  as  such  is  to  be  heeded  and  acted 
upon.  Old  notions  may  die,  but  new  notions 
shall  spring  up.  Let  the  principle  be  at  work, 
and  no  one  can  limit  the  result.  It  may  take  a 
longer  sweep  of  ages  than  have  yet  passed  over 
mankind,  to  bring  all  nations  to  the  same  point 
of  advancement ;  some  nations,  now  here  and 


26  PHILOSOPHY    OF    REFORM. 

DOW  there,  may  always  be  in  advance  of  others, 
yet  if  the  others  advance  also,  the  great  law  will 
be  in  operation.  And  no  people  shall  have  lived 
or  died  in  vain.  Into  the  deepest  sepulchres  of 
the  Old  and  the  Past  a  new  life  shall  be  kindled, 
showing  that  they  have  not  waited  so  long  for 
nothing.  Dim  Mero£  will  shout  freedom  from 
beyond  the  fountains  of  the  Nile,  and  the  stony 
lips  of  the  Sphynx  shall  preach  the  Gospel ! 

At  least,  let  me  say  to  the  Conservative,  that 
if  there  is  progress  where  he  stands,  he  is  bound 
to  act  upon  that  progress.  His  croaking  is  of  no 
worth  at  all — his  action  may  at  least  accomplish 
some  present  good.  Grant  that,  in  the  end,  it 
shall  come  to  naught.  Now  it  is  progress,  now 
it  is  improvement.  Let  him  strive  to  promote 
that  improvement.  Enough,  that  the  age  in 
which  he  lives,  and  the  people  with  whom  he 
is  associated,  are  asking  for  light.  Let  him 
admit  the  light,  and  not  speculate,  as  to  whether 
the  light  will  go  out  ages  after  he  is  dead.  Let 
him  not  peer  through  all  the  corners  of  the  earth, 
and  point  to  all  the  sleeping  nations  as  an  argu- 
ment why  his  own  should  sleep  also. 

With  this  I  dismiss  the  Conservative  and  his 
arguments,  and  pass  to  consider  the  strict  RADI- 
CAL, who,  I  say,  is  also  wrong.  He  who  wages 
war  with  all  existing  institutions,  is  as  bad  as 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    REFORM.  27 

he  who  holds  on  to  all  existing  institutions — 
perhaps  worse.  There  is  always  some  good  to 
be  preserved.  To  think  otherwise,  is  to  calum- 
niate the  past,  and  deny  the  Agency  of  Provi- 
dence. In  order  to  reform,  it  is  not  necessary 
nor  practicable,  to  level  all  existing  institutions 
to  the  dust  at  one  stroke,  and  drive  the  plough- 
share over  them.  If  they  do  not  actually  think 
so,  there  are  some  men  who  speak  as  if  they 
owed  nothing  to  the  Past  or  the  Present — as  if 
these  were  naught  but  hindrances  to  human  pro- 
gress. But  if  I  understand  progress,  it  is  the 
gradual  passage  from  one  condition  to  another, 
each  link  in  the  chain  being  necessary  to  the 
consummation.  If  human  nature  grows,  it  must 
have  something  to  grow  out  of,  and  therefore  it 
is  indebted  to  that  something.  Your  Reform 
will  not  create  itself,  nor  will  it  be  born  mature, 
nor  can  it  be  produced  in  the  impalpable  air. 
You  must  use  what  exists  in  order  to  build  up 
what  shall  be.  If  you  strike  away  every  vestige 
of  the  past  and  the  present,  upon  what  will  you 
stand  for  the  future  ?  No — no — you  cannot  get 
out  of  the  world  in  order  to  move  the  world. 
You  must  stand  upon  this  old  firm  earth  just  as 
it  is,  and  try  to  make  it  better.  The  plant  that 
shall  blossom  unto  an  immortal  flowering,  must 
assimilate  to  itself  elements  that  have  been  win- 


28  PHILOSOPHY    OF    REFORM. 

nowed  in  the  storms  and  changes  of  the  Past. 
The  harvest  of  human  effort,  and  hope,  and 
prayer,  will  spring  up  in  the  furrows  of  by-gone 
revelations,  out  from  the  embers  of  sin,  and  the 
ashes  of  martyrdom,  and  the  soil  of  blood-soaked 
battle-fields. 

To  the  strict  Radical  I  object,  moreover,  that 
if  he  does  not  actually  seek  thus  to  destroy  at 
once  all  existing  organizations,  he  often  does 
what  amounts  to  the  same  thing.  He  attempts 
to  introduce  principles  and  institutions  that  are 
impracticable,  because  they  are  fitted  for  an  en- 
tirely different  state  of  things,  for  an  advanced 
era  of  humanity,  for  a  golden  age,  a  time  of  per- 
fection. But  between  our  present  state  and  such 
an  elevated  condition,  a  wide  space  intervenes. 
Every  inch  of  ground,  between  this  point  and 
that,  is  to  be  trodden  gradually.  His  Reform  is 
impalpable,  because  it  does  not  connect  with  what 
has  gone  before — we  cannot  reach  it  from  where 
we  stand — and  if  we  would  advance  to  it,  we 
have  nothing  to  advance  upon.  It  is  premature, 
and,  not  regarding  the  Past  and  the  Present,  is 
the  same  as  if  it  rejected  them.  I  think  that 
many  radicals  are  of  this  class.  There  are  some, 
I  presume,  who  disgrace  every  attempted  Re- 
form— who  seek  to  overturn  all  things  in  order 
that  they  may  gratify  their  revenge  and  their 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    REFORM.  29 

lusts.  But  these  are  vile  men,  who  do  not  listen 
to  reason.  But,  I  say,  many  are  of  the  class  to 
which  I  just  alluded.  They  are  virtuous  but 
dreamy.  They  speculate  too  much.  Their  phi- 
losophy may  be  very  good,  but  they  want  com- 
mon sense.  Their  logic  is  sound  so  long  as  we 
confine  it  to  abstract  principles,  but  it  cannot 
stand  the  ordeal  of  stubborn  facts.  We  may 
hope  for  the  future,  but  we  must  act  in  the  pre- 
sent. We  cannot  forestall  nature,  nor  renovate 
society  by  steam. 

Again  ; — your  Radical  is  frequently  a  mere 
grumbler.  His  sole  function,  in  that  case,  seems 
to  be,  finding  fault.  He  has  a  shrewd  wit,  per- 
haps, and  cultivates  a  sharp  satire,  which  are  often 
effectual,  and  sometimes  amusing.  It  makes  us 
laugh  when  he  shakes  some  respectable  old  rot- 
tenness, or  when  decently-clothed  sin  winces  at 
his  punctures.  But,  after  all,  this  is  an  unamiable 
and  unprofitable  function.  It  is  the  easiest  thing 
in  the  world  to  find  fault.  It  requires  no  great 
power  to  pull  down,  or  to  pick  in  pieces.  He 
who  takes  away  without  giving  something  in- 
stead, performs  no  grateful  office.  If  you  take 
from  a  poor  man  his  ragged  cloak,  and  give  him 
no  other  clothing,  he  will  hardly  call  you  his 
benefactor.  Now  the  true  Reformer  not  only 
removes  the  bad — he  gives  us  something  better. 
3 


30  FHILOSOPHr   OF    REFORM. 

He  has  not  only  "  a  torch  for  burning,  but  a 
hammer  for  building."  At  least  he  will  have 
pity  for  the  evils  that  he  cannot  help,  and  while 
he  bears  them  with  meek  humility,  will  ever 
look  forward  with  hope  and  faith.  The  fault- 
finding Radical  knows  not  the  true  spirit  of  Re- 
form. This  seeks  to  build  up,  to  develope, 
knowing  that  in  this  way  evil  is  best  destroyed. 
It  will  not  pluck  the  crutch  from  the  cripple — 
but  will  seek  to  heal  his  lameness.  It  will  not 
undermine  the  faith  of  childhood's  simple  hymn, 
but  will  anoint  its  lips,  and  teach  its  faltering 
voice  to  flow  in  deep  and  sweet  hosannas. 

But,  let  me  say  further,  the  Radical  often 
manifests  a  bad  spirit.  He  talks  much  of  phi- 
lanthropy with  his  lips,  but  his  heart  cherishes 
bitterness.  He  speaks  of  reason  and  kindness, 
but  as  often  vociferates  and  declaims.  He  com- 
plains of  persecution,  but  is  very  intolerant.  He 
is  boastfully  confident  of  the  strength  of  his 
opinions,  but  frets  and  fumes  if  any  one  opposes 
him.  He  professes  to  love  the  race,  but  de- 
nounces the  world,  because  it  misunderstands  or 
will  not  believe  him.  He  is  as  busy,  and  as 
spiteful,  as  a  wasp.  This  is  not  the  spirit  of 
the  true  Reformer.  He  is  calm  and  mild,  mighty 
against  sin,  hurling  burning  truths  at  every 
wrong,  but  still  preserving,  amid  it  all,  a  loving 


PHILOSOPHY   OF    REFORM.  31 

heart.  He  is  fearless  and  unfaltering — he  presses 
right  on  with  his  mission ;  but  he  does  not  court 
persecution,  or  pray  for  martyrdom.  He  is  con- 
tented to  let  Truth  bide  its  time,  and  is  careful 
that  he  does  not  injure  it  by  rashness  and  im- 
propriety, as  much  as  by  sluggishness  or  denial. 
He  will  not  be  angry  if  men  do  not  believe  him 
at  the  first  announcement.  He  is  contented  if 
he  may  only  preach  the  truth,  for  he  knows  that 
once  scattered  abroad  it  can  never  die.  It  may 
not  blossom  until  long  after  he  is  dead — but  what 
of  that  ?  The  summer  rains  and  winter  snows 
shall  work  for  it;  and,  long  after  his  voice  is 
hushed,  and  his  eye  dark,  his  very  dust  shall 
nourish  it — for  it  will  blossom  at  last !  Such  is 
the  true  Reformer.  You  see  that  the  rash  and 
angry  Radical  differs  in  much  from  him. 

I  find,  then,  in  strict  Radicalism,  as  many  ob- 
jections as  I  do  in  strict  Conservatism.  The  one 
holds  on  to  all  things,  the  other  would  destroy 
all  things — the  one  will  not  move  at  all,  the 
other  moves  too  fast — the  one  is  too  complacent, 
the  other  too  dissatisfied — the  one  denounces  all 
who  go  from  him,  the  other  is  angry  with  all 
who  will  not  come  to  him. 

But  now  between  all  this  there  is  a  middle 
course,  in  which  a  true  Radicalism  and  a  true 
Conservatism  combine.  There  is  such  a  thing 


32  PHILOSOPHY    OF    REFORM. 

as  REFORM.  We  have  seen  that  it  is  a  legiti- 
mate principle  ever  working  in  the  souls  of  men. 
The  errors  and  woes  with  which  we  are  sur- 
rounded, are  not  meant  to  abide.  This  reign  of 
blood  and  violence,  is  it  destined  to  last  for  ever  ? 
These  shams  that  appear  on  dusty  parchment,  in 
feudal  distinctions,  and  legal  wrongs,  shall  they 
not  one  day  dissolve  and  pass  away  ?  Absolute 
Conservatism  is  false  to  our  better  nature,  to  our 
hopes  and  our  capacities.  But  this  true  Reform 
works  by  a  law  of  nature,  and,  like  all  nature's 
laws  is  not  to  be  accelerated,  or  counterfeited. 
Slowly  must  the  work  go  on — yet  it  will  go  on. 
It  is  life,  it  is  reality — dreams  and  speculations 
are  not  it.  The  GOOD,  the  Good  alone,  it  labors 
to  secure — the  Good  that  is  in  the  past,  the 
Good  that  is  in  the  future.  It  labors  to  remove 
evil  by  purification,  and  by  advancement.  It 
holds  on  to  the  hallowed  that  has  gone  before — 
it  reaches  out  to  the  true  that  is  to  come.  The 
spirit  of  true  Reform,  neither  too  fast,  nor  too 
slow,  both  conservative  and  progressive,  may  be 
described,  with  a  slight  alteration,  in  the  words 
of  Goethe. 

"  Like  as  a  star 
That  maketh  not  haste, 
That  taketh  not  rest, 
Is  it  ever  fulfilling 
Its  God-given  best." 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    REFORM.  33 

Thus,  my  friends,  I  have  given  you  some 
crude  ideas  upon  the  PHILOSOPHY  OF  REFORM. 
I  thought  it  would  not  be  uninteresting,  nor  un- 
profitable, to  analyze  somewhat,  that  about  which 
so  much  is  said  in  our  day — concerning  which  so 
many  exaggerated  hopes  and  groundless  fears  are 
entertained.  Let  us  not  be  anarchists — let 
us  not  be  alarmists.  Let  us  be  REFORMERS — 
that  is  upbuilders  ;  neither  absolute  Conserva- 
tives, nor  absolute  Radicals,  but  laborers  for  the 
Good  wherever  we  find  it — having  faith  in  Re- 
form. Let  us  not  suppose  that  our  age  can  do 
everything,  or  that  men  are  about  to  become 
perfect.  Neither  let  us  fear  that  the  world  will 
be  turned  upside  down,  nor  deem  that  all  things 
are  best  as  they  are.  Let  us  have  our  harness 
on,  ready  when  the  trumpet  sounds  to  do  the 
best  we  can  for  the  Right,  the  Good,  and  the 
True. 

But  having  thus  decided  for  the  legitimacy  of 
Reform,  I  must  not  pause  without  asserting  the 
ground  on  which  my  faith  in  its  success  is  founded. 
The  great  Element  of  Reform  is  not  born  of  hu- 
man wisdom ;  it  does  not  draw  its  life  from  human 
organizations.  I  find  it  only  in  CHRISTIANITY. 
"  Thy  Kingdom  come  !"  There  is  a  sublime 
and  pregnant  burden  in  this  Prayer.  It  is  the 
aspiration  of  every  soul  that  goes  forth  in  the 


34  PHILOSOPHY    OF    REFORM. 

spirit  of  Reform.  For  what  is  the  significance 
of  this  Prayer  ?  It  is  a  petition  that  all  holy  in- 
fluences would  penetrate  and  subdue  and  dwell 
in  the  heart  of  man,  until  he  shall  think,  and 
speak,  and  do  good  from  the  very  necessity  of 
his  being.  So  would  the  institutions  of  error 
and  wrong  crumble  and  pass  away.  So  would 
sin  die  out  from  the  earth.  And  the  human 
soul,  living  in  harmony  with  the  Divine  Will, 
this  earth  would  become  like  Heaven.  This 
Kingdom  of  God  upon  earth  is  no  unsubstantial- 
ity — it  covers  no  narrow  field.  It  is  the  perfection 
and  the  meaning  of  that  which  we  see,  however 
dim  and  distant,  in  all  true  Reforms.  When  it 
comes,  the  rage  of  war  shall  cease, — the  inequali- 
ties of  rank  shall  vanish,  the  chains  of  the  slave 
will  be  broken,  and  the  feet  of  the  oppressor  will 
rest  on  the  neck  of  his  fellow  no  longer.  And 
the  din  and  the  clamor  that  have  rocked  society 
for  ages,  and  the  woes  that  have  heaved  its  heart 
so  long,  will  be  no  more.  These  will  all  pass 
away,  and  be  still — like  the  night  and  the  storm, 
when  the  summer-morning  descends  upon  the 
mountains,  the  vallies,  and  the  sea. 

It  is  too  late  for  Reformers  to  sneer  at  Chr" 
tianity — it  is  foolishness  for  them  to  reject 
In  it  are  enshrined  our  faith  in  human  progrt 
— our  confidence  in  Reform.     It  is  indissolub. 


PHILOSOPHY    OF    REFORM.  35 

connected  with  all  that  is  hopeful,  spiritual,  ca- 
pable in  man.  That  men  have  misunderstood  it 
and  perverted  it,  is  true.  But  it  is  also  true  that 
the  noblest  efforts  for  human  melioration  have 
come  out  of  it — have  been  based  upon  it.  Is  it 
not  so  ?  Come,  ye  remembered  ones,  who  sleep 
the  sleep  of  the  Just,  who  took  your  conduct 
from  the  line  of  Christian  Philosophy — come 
from  your  tombs,  and  answer!"  Come  Howard, 
from  the  gloom  of  the  prison  and  the  taint  of  the 
lazar-house,  and  show  us  what  Philanthropy  can 
do  when  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  Jesus.  Come 
Eliott,  from  the  thick  forest  where  the  red-man 
listens  to  the  Word  of  Life — come  Penn,  from 
thy  sweet  counsel  and  weaponless  victory  ;  and 
show  us  what  Christian  Zeal  and  Christian  Love 
can  accomplish  with  the  rudest  barbarism  and 
the  fiercest  hearts.  Come  Raikes,  from  thy  la- 
bors with  the  ignorant  and  the  poor,  and  show 
us  with  what  an  eye  this  Faith  regards  the  low- 
est and  least  of  our  race,  and  how  diligently  it 
labors,  not  for  the  body,  not  for  the  rank,  but 
for  the  plastic  soul  that  is  to  course  the  ages  of 
immortality.  And  ye,  who  are  a  great  number 
—ye  nameless  ones — who  have  done  good  in 
your  narrower  spheres,  content  to  forego  renown 
on  earth  ;  and,  seeking  your  Reward  in  the  Rec- 
ord on  High,  come  and  tell  us  how  kindly  a  spirit, 


36  PHILOSOPHY    OP    REFORM. 

how  lofty  a  purpose,  or  how  strong  a  courage, 
the  Religion  ye  professed  can  breathe  into  the 
poor,  the  humble,  and  the  weak. 

Go  forth,  then,  Spirit  of  Christianity,  to  thy 
great  work  of  REFORM  !  The  Pastbears  witness 
to  thee  in  the  blood  of  thy  martyrs,  and  the  ashes 
of  thy  saints  and  heroes.  The  Present  is  hope- 
ful because  of  thee.  The  Future  shall  acknow- 
ledge thy  omnipotence ! 


DISCOURSES. 

DISCOURSE  I. 
THE  TRUE  GROUND  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNION. 

Preached  in   the  Bleecker  street  Church,  New   York, 
Sabbath  morning,  January  15th,  1843. 

Pure  religion  and  undented  before  God  and  the  Father, 
is  this,  To  visit  the  fatherless  and  widows  in  their  affliction, 
and  to  keep  himself  unspotted  from  the  world. 

JAMES  i.  27. 

OUR  time  is  distinguished  for  its  moral  and 
Benevolent  asssociations.  Some  of  these  are 
distinct  and  sectarian.  To  them  I  have  now  no 
reference.  Others  are  Catholic  and  Philanthro- 
pic in  their  character.  These  assume  a  peculiar 
interest.  In  this  interest  consists  not  alone  the  fact 
that  they  are  developements  of  the  present  age. 
Here  we  might  ground  some  cheering  hopes,  and 
indulge  in  many  pleasing  speculations.  It  is  a  great 
truth  that  bursts  upon  us  in  this  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, that  the  condition  of  humanity,  taken  in  the 
mass,  is  more  hopeful  than  ever  it  was  before. 
The  wave  of  human  experience,  that  has  rolled 


38  THE    TRUE    GROUND 

through  so  many  night-like  ages,  bearing  upon 
its  bosom  blood  and  weapons  and  chains,  is  fast 
gliding  now  in  blessed  light  that  bursts  through 
the  rifts  of  the  breaking  clouds,  and  issues  far 
up  in  the  serene  heaven. 

But,  I  say,  these  associations  assume  an  inter- 
est to  us,  not  only  from  the  indications  which 
they  present  of  human  developement  and  human 
progress,  but  because  below  them  seems  to  lie 
this  fact — that,  in  these  associations  Christians 
find  a  common  ground^  and  a  common  ground  of 
wide  extent  too,  to  meet  upon.  Is  it  not  an  inter- 
esting question  to  ask — What  will  be  the  effect 
of  the  Philanthropic  movements  of  our  day,  in 
bringing  together  Christian  hearts,  and  in  secu- 
ring Peace  and  Union  to  the  Christian  Church  ? 

Let  us  look  a  little  at  the  interesting  aspect 
which  these  associations  present.  The  funda- 
mental principle  upon  which  they  rest  is  PRAC- 
TICAL BENEVOLENCE.  Now  this  is  something 
plain  and  tangible.  The  Presbyterian  takes  his 
Bible,  and  cannot  find  therein  the  Doctrine  of 
Universal  Salvation — he  thinks  he  discovers, 
instead,  the  doctrine  of  Endless  Misery,  and 
may  verily  believe  he  does  God  service,  by 
proclaiming  his  brother  a  grievous  heretic,  and 
excluding  him  from  the  Communion  Table.  But 
he  goes  out  on  Anniversary  day,  to  the  Prison 


OF    CHRISTIAN    UNION.  39 

Discipline  Society,  or  the  Temperance  associa- 
tion, and  lo !  there  he  meets  the  Universalist, 
and  sits  side  by  side  with  him,  and  unites  with 
him  in  cordial,  energetic  action.  The  Unitarian 
cannot  find  the  mystery  of  the  Trinity  in  the 
Record,  nor  can  the  Methodist,  or  the  Baptist, 
discover  any  thing  less  than  the  Supreme  God- 
Head  of  Jesus ;  but  the  Anniversary  comes 
round,  and  lo !  Unitarian  and  Methodist,  and 
Baptist  and  Quaker,  they  are  all  there,  speaking, 
voting,  working,  like  men  and  like  brothers. 
Now  here  is  something  not  altogether  meaning- 
less and  uninteresting.  It  is  plain  that  each  of 
these  men  being  a  Bible  reader  and  a  Bible  dis- 
ciple, each  has  found  something  there  that  brings 
him  to  the  Anniversary,  and  that  bring  them  to- 
gether. What  is  it?  Why  the  Injunction  of 
PRACTICAL  BENEVOLENCE — the  great  Law  of 
Love  to  man  breathing  all  through  the  Gospel, 
seen  in  every  lineament  of  Jesus,  and  discovered 
in  that  Precept  which  says — "Visit  the  father- 
less and  widows  in  their  affliction." 

Here,  then,  I  say,  is  a  common  ground  of 
Christian  Union,  and  a  ground  of  no  mean  extent. 
The  field  is  as  broad  as  the  world — the  ties  of 
unity  are  as  strong  as  the  affections  of  the  human 
heart.  We  cannot  all  believe  the  same  thing — 
we  cannot  all  worship  in  the  same  form  ;  but 


40  THE    TRUE    GROUND 

we  know  what  charity  is,  and  what  human 
brotherhood  is,  and  what,  in  its  Essence,  Chris- 
tianity is — and  it  is  a  great  thing  to  hold  so  much 
in  common. 

Now  a  union  of  Christians  on  a  common  ground 
of  Faith,  never  has  taken  place,  and  probably 
never  will  take  place.  It  has  been  tried.  It 
has  made  many  hypocrites,  and  many  formalists, 
and  induced  much  ignorance  and  superstition. 
The  Romish  hierarchy  tried  this — the  union  of 
the  Church  on  the  ground  of  a  common  Faith. 
The  Reformation  exploded  that  idea.  It  will 
never  be  attempted  again.  Of  course,  I  do  not 
mean  here  that  there  is  no  one  article  of  belief 
or  that  there  are  not  articles  in  which  all  will 
agree.  From  the  necessity  of  things  Christians 
must  believe  in  God  and  in  Christ.  But  when 
I  allude  to  the  ground  of  Faith,  I  refer  to  the 
sectarian  points.  I  do  not  think  that  men  will 
ever  come  together  upon  one  Creed-platform,  if 
that  platform  contains  exclusively  the  views  of 
any  one  sect,  or  the  peculiar  views  of  all  the  sects. 
I  do  not  think  that  all  men  will  ever  be,  specula- 
tively,  Presbyterians,  or  Methodists,  or  Baptists, 
or  Unitarians,  or  Universalists.  In  heart,  in  action, 
they  may  be  all  that  is  good  in  all  these  systems. 
But  they  will  never,  probably,  unite  on  one 
ground  of  Faith.  We  shall  never  have  a  Catho- 


OF    CHRISTIAN    UNION.  4l 

lie  Church  so  far  as  belief  is  concerned — a  Church 
whose  creed  shall  be  alike  for  the  young  and  for 
the  old,  for  the  untutored  and  for  the  enlightened 
mind,  for  the  mind  of  the  nineteenth  and  the  mind 
of  the  twenty-ninth  century.  Is  it  not  time  that 
we  had  given  up  this  idea  ? 

But,  you  may  say — "if  this  is  so,  why  preach 
at  all  your  peculiar  views  ?"  For  this  reason, 
to  be  sure — that  we  believe  those  views  to  be 
true,  and  hope  to  make  them  widely  prevalent. 
But  this  is  a  different  thing  from  excluding  all 
from  the  Christian  name  who  will  not  adopt  our 
views — this  is  a  different  thing  from  making  our 
views  essential,  absolutely  essential  to  the  Chris- 
tian character.  Now  this  has  been  the  fault  of 
the  sects.  They  have  made  their  peculiar  views 
of  Christian  doctrine  essential  to  Christian  cha- 
racter— have  denied  men  the  Christian  name  and 
Christian  communion,  and  called  them  heretics 
and  infidels,  because  they  did  not  adopt  their 
views.  And,  I  ask,  is  it  not  time  that  we  gave 
up  this  practice  of  un-christianizing  all  men  who 
cannot  adopt  our  peculiar  articles  of  Faith  ?  Is 
it  not  time  that  we  looked  for  some  broader, 
deeper  principle  of  union  than  any  one  set  of 
tenets?  The  chain  is  too  scanty,  the  links  are 
too  few — it  cannot  embrace  all  the  tongues  and 
tribes  and  kindreds  of  true  Christendom.  The 
4 


42  THE    TRUE    GROUND 

bond  must  spring  from  the  heart,  not  from  the 
brain — must  be  a  bond  of  practice,  not  of  secta- 
rian Faith — must  live  in  the  affections,  not  the 
reason. 

I  am  not  too  sanguine.  I  know  how  bitter 
the  opposition  to  all  this  is.  I  know  what  a 
firm  seat  bigotry  and  ignorance  yet  have  in  the 
human  soul.  It  is  enough  to  make  one  cry  out, 
not  with  indignation,  but  with  pain,  at  the  miser- 
able narrowness  of  some  of  our  Christians,  It 
was  some  time  since,  that  I  looked  over  a  Reli- 
gious paper,  in  which  was  given  an  account  of 
Revivals,  and  once  or  twice  it  was  mentioned 
that  such  a  man  was  "  a  profane  man,  a  Univer- 
salist" — "  a  drunken  man,  a  Universalist ;"  or 
something  equivalent.  Thus  Universalism  was 
classed  with  profaneness  and  drunkenness,  as  if 
these  are  its  necessary  adjuncts.  Now  this  is 
very  narrow.  We  will  call  it  ignorance,  but 
surely  we  ought  not  to  boast  much  of  our  "  age 
of  light,"  if  such  ignorance  is  widely  extended. 
It  ought  to  be  known,  if  it  is  not  known,  that 
there  is  no  necessary  connection  between  Uni- 
versalism and  drunkenness  and  profaneness. 
Why,  a  man  may  believe  God  is  his  Father  and 
Benefactor — that  he  is  bound  to  Love  Him  by 
the  dearest  and  holiest  ties ;  I  say,  it  is  possible 
that  a  man  should  believe  thus,  and  yet  not  pro- 


OF    CHRISTIAN    UNION.  43 

fane  God's  Name — why  should  he  ?  A  man 
may  believe  that  Intemperance  mars  and  crushes 
the  physical,  intellectual  and  moral  man,  bring- 
ing ruin,  sorrow  and  death,  and  yet,  although 
believing  in  the  final  salvation  of  all  men,  not  be 
a  drunkard — why  should  he  ?  What  necessary 
connection  is  there  between  the  belief  in  the 
final  salvation  of  all  men,  and  drunkenness  ? 
Oh  !  it  is  petty,  I  had  almost  said  it  is  vile — this 
low,  narrow  estimate  of  Religious  opinions,  and 
Religious  men.  What  if  I  should  indite  an  arti- 
cle, and  say — such  a  man  is  a  deacon  in  the 
Church,  a  sharper  and  a  Baptist — such  a  man  is 
a  selfish,  hard-dealing  man  and  a  Presbyterian — 
such  a  man  is  a  licentious  man  and  a  Methodist; 
classing  these  terms  together  as  matters  of  course  ? 
The  whole  community  would  feel  outraged,  and 
cry  against  it.  But  would  it  be  any  worse  in 
this  case,  than  it  is  in  the  other  ?  Have  there 
been  profane  and  drunken  Universalists?  Very 
likely.  So  also  have  there  been  cheating  Bap- 
tists, and  selfish  Presbyterians,  and  licentious 
Methodists.  But  what  of  that  ?  Am  I  prepared 
to  say  that  they  were  sharpers,  or  misers,  or 
rakes,  just  because  they  were  Baptists,  or  Pres- 
byterians, or  Methodists  ?  No  ! — far  be  it  from 
me  to  detract  from  the  good  character  that  many, 
who  live  in  consistency  with  their  views,  bear. 


44  THE    TRUE    GROUND 

Now  I  know  that  there  is  a  great  deal  of  just 
such  narrowness  as  this  which  I  have  illustrated, 
existing  in  the  Christian  Church.  I  know  that 
in  some  sections  an  almost  impenetrable  veil, 
thicker  than  the  wall  between  Jew  and  Gentile, 
hangs  dark  and  unpromising  among  the  sects. 
But,  although  things  work  gradually,  there  is 
always  reason  to  hope  and  to  be  strong,  when  a 
good  principle  once  gets  foot-hold  in  the  world. 
A  true  principle  never  dies.  A  grain  of  seed, 
sown  in  truth  and  holiness,  will  spring  up  to  fru- 
ition— though  it  may  be  long,  long  ere  it  shall 
flower  in  its  beauty,  or  spread  its  green  leaves  to 
the  sun.  Therefore,  I  have  hope  for  Christian 
union  from  the  benevolent  movements  of  the 
day.  They  bring  men  of  very  discordant  theo- 
logies together,  in  very  harmonious  and  very 
extensive  action.  And  though  they  may  not,  by 
any  means,  develope  all  of  Religion,  they  reveal, 
in  glimpses,  much  of  what  true  Religion,  true 
Christianity,  is.  And  so  we  find  that  in  true 
Practical  Religion  we  can  unite,  though  not  in 
speculative  tenets,  And  this  will  help  men  to 
know  each  other  better — to  see  more  and  more 
of  one  another — to  find  how  much  of  good,  deep, 
Aearf-Religion  there  is  in  all,  and  to  find  that  it 
will  make  sweet  music  enough  in  Heaven,  up 
among  the  harps  and  the  Angels,  though  the  tide 


OF    CHRISTIAN    UNION.  45 

of  song  to  God  and  the  Lamb  comes  mingling 
from  the  lips  of  Presbyterian  and  Methodist  and 
Baptist  and  Universalist.  And  so,  by  and  by, 
there  will  be  less  misrepresentation,  less  abuse, 
more  respectful  treatment  towards  one  another; 
and,  gradually,  men  will  find  that  in  Practical 
Religion — in  visiting  the  fatherless  and  widows 
in  their  affliction,  and  in  keeping  themselves  un- 
spotted from  the  world — there  is  a  bond  of  union 
deep  as  the  soul,  wide  as  the  race,  beautiful  like 
Heaven,  holy  like  Christ.  And  one  will  say  to 
another — "  my  brother,  I  have  sinned  against 
thee.  I  thought  in  the  little  parchment  creed 
that  my  fathers  gave  me  was  the  test  of  true 
Religion — and  I  called  thee  hard  names.  But 
now,  I  have  learned  my  error.  I  see  that  Chris- 
tianity is  not  a  dogma  but  a  life.  Come,  and 
here,  where  our  Master's  broken  Body  and  his 
shed  Blood  are  manifested  by  not  inappropriate 
emblems  of  his  rent  and  divided  Church,  here 
we  will  commune  together,  as  we  hope  to  when 
we  see  him  Glorified,  and  behold  in  each  other 
the  same  lovely  Image." 

My  friends,  I  said  I  am  not  sanguine,  and 
therefore  I  only  speculate  upon  what  will  be  a 
very  natural  effect  of  the  associated  benevolent 
action  of  the  day.  In  these  organizations,  as  I 

have  already  remarked,  we  get  glimpses  of  much 
4* 


46  THE    TRUE    GROUND 

of  what  Christianity  really  is.     Now  men,  in  all 
ages  of  the  Church,  have  been  prone  to  seal  up 
the  Religion  of  the  Gospel  in  articles  and  forms. 
The  controversy  has  all  been  about  these.     One 
of  the  first  discussions  in  the  Christian  Church 
was  about   circumcision,  about   Jewish   forms. 
But  Christ  did  not  come  to  announce  to  men 
that  they  must  be  circumcised,  or  abstain  from 
such  and  such  meats.     He  came  to  shed  abroad 
in  men's  hearts  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  which 
*'  is  not  meat  or  drink,  but  righteousness,  and 
joy,  and  peace  in  the  Holy  Ghost."     Men  have 
sought  to  make  Christianity  depend  upon  the 
belief  that  a  wafer  was  actually  Christ's  Body 
— that  the  Pope  was  infallible.    Men  have  sought 
to  make  Christianity  hinge  upon  the  point  that 
Christ  is  very  God  and  very  man-*— that  Endless 
Misery  is  the  Revealed  Will  of  God  respecting 
a  portion  of  the  human  race — that  Baptism  is  es- 
sential to  Salvation.     And  so  they  have  sat  down 
at  separate  tables,  and  have  cast  angry  glances  at 
each  other,  and  thundered  long  and  loud  from 
the  pulpits,  and  met  each  other  coldly  in  the 
streets,  and  filled  newspapers  and  pamphlets, 
yea,  books  and  libraries,  with  controversial  abuse. 
But  is  all  this  Christianity  ?     No  more  than  the 
raiment  is  the  body,  or  the  meat  the  life.     Chris- 
tianity is  a  Life,  and  every  devout  and  loving 


OF    CHRISTIAN    UNION.  47 

heart  has  felt  it,  no  matter  what  its  name,  or 
sect.  Men  have  not  evinced  their  Christianity 
when  sitting  in  a  certain  Church,  or  worshipping 
in  a  certain  form,  or  holding  to  articles  of  Faith 
with  the  head  merely.  The  old  heathens  could 
do  all  this;  and  what  better,  therefore,  are  we 
than  they  ?  What  peculiarity  was  there  in  Chris- 
tianity, if  this  was  all  that  it  came  to  teach  ? 
But  when  men  have  gone  out  and  visited  the 
fatherless,  when  they  have  resisted  the  tempta- 
tions and  overcome  the  sins  of  the  world,  then 
have  they  manifested  Christianity — then'  have 
they  shown  what  it  is. 

This  being  so,  it  will  be  seen  at  a  glance,  that 
all  sects  have,  in  fact,  acknowledged  fundamental 
Christianity.  There  has  never  been  a  sect  that 
has  denied  the  necessity  and  the  beauty  of  a 
life  of  holiness  and  goodness.  There  has  never 
been  a  sect  that  has  not  seen  that  Christ  is  the 
Teacher  of  Holiness  and  Goodness.  If,  then,  all 
sects  practice  that  Holiness  and  Goodness,  will 
they  not  meet  on  one  common  ground?  And,  I 
ask,  are  not  the  movements  of  the  present  day 
fast  tending  to  develope  this  fact  that  all  sects  be- 
lieve in  what  is  truly  vital  and  practical  in  Chris- 
tianity? I  think  so.  Here  for  the  poor  inebriate 
— here  for  the  bond-slave — here  for  the  cruelly- 
treated  criminal — here  for  the  suffering  poor ; 


48  THE    TRUE    GROUND 

we  can  act,  and  hope,  and  pray  together.  And 
do  not  think  that  there  is  no  Religion  in  this.  It 
has  been  the  fallacy  of  men,  that  they  have  too 
lightly  prized  this  every-day,  practical  Good- 
ness. But  such  was  the  way  that  Jesus  lived — 
in  every-day,  practical  Goodness.  Men  have 
been  prone  to  limit  Religion  to  the  Church,  to 
the  Closet,  to  Reading,  Meditation,  and  Retire- 
ment— and  to  think  too  little  of  taking  hold  of 
the  evils  of  humanity,  of  visiting  the  fatherless 
and  widows  in  their  affliction — of  cherishing  a 
loving  heart  and  manifesting  a  loving  life.  But 
the  age  is  correcting  this  error.  The  dark  clouds 
of  strife  and  smoke  are  breaking  away.  Far 
through  the  opening  vista  of  rent  devices  and 
broken  symbols,  like  the  heaving  billows  of  a 
mighty  sea,  the  tide  of  Christian  Philanthropy  is 
rolling  on.  Men  of  all  sects  are  there.  The 
Catholic  is  there  with  his  Crucifix  pressed  to  his 
bosom.  The  Methodist  comes  on,  singing  the 
sweet  hymns  of  Wesley.  The  Baptist  brings 
his  robe  of  immersion.  The  Presbyterian  stands 
upright,  as  his  iron  fathers  did  of  old,  to  pray  in 
simple  reverence  and  freedom.  The  Universal- 
ist  chants  his  anthem  of  restoration  and  holiness. 
But  they  stand  shoulder  to  shoulder.  They  all 
point  upward,  earnestly  upward,  to  that  great 
Banner  which  waves  over  all — whose  device  is 


OF    CHRISTIAN    UNION.  49 

the  Crucified  Jesus — whose  inscription  all  over 
in  letters  of  blessed  light  is  his  last  Command — 
"  Love  one  another  y"  is  the  spirit  of  his  pure 
and  undefiled  Religion — "  Visit  the  fatherless  and 
widoivs  in  their  affliction,  keep  yourselves  unspot- 
ted from  the  world.'J 

Thus,  I  say,  my  friends,  in  the  benevolent 
associations  of  the  day,  we  discover  a  glowing 
hopefulness,  and  the  kindlings  of  a  grand  and 
cheering  truth.  We  may  see,  that  not  only  do 
they  promise  well  for  man — for  the  lowly,  and 
desolate,  and  down-trodden  ;  but  they  reveal  the 
true  ground  of  Christian  Union,  which  is  not  a 
unity  of  Faith,  but  a  unity  of  heart  and  life — a 
practical  unity.  And,  viewed  in  this  light,  are 
not  the  benevolent  movements  of  the  age  indeed 
encouraging  ?  Do  they  not  call  for  the  Blessings 
and  Prayers  of  all  good  men  ? 

With  two  or  three  remarks,  I  will  close  this 
subject.  And, 

First ; — I  have  not  been  recommending  a  mere 
outward,  dry-husk  morality.  "  Pure  Religion^ 
the  Text  says — "  Pure  Religion,  and  undefiled 
before  God  and  the  Father  is  this — ."  I  know 
there  is  a  form  of  morality,  an  outward,  decent 
aspect  of  living,  while  to  all  devout  feeling,  and 
to  all  true,  inward  life,  the  heart  is  a  stranger. 
But  I  understand  this  to  describe  an  ardent  love 


50  THE    TRUE    GROUND 

to  man — a  zealous  philanthropic  action  for  human 
relief  and  human  improvement.  And  not  only 
so.  I  understand  it  to  demand  a  freedom  from 
sinful  desires  and  sinful  conduct — a  keeping  un- 
spotted from  the  evil  of  the  world.  The  whole 
requirement  in  the  Text,  then,  is  nothing  less 
than  loving  man  with  a  heart  sanctified  by  love 
to  God — a  soul  growing  and  developing  in  right- 
eousness. So  it  is  no  dead,  worldly  matter.  It 
is  spirit,  and  it  is  life.  I  know  there  is  no  gloomy 
mystery  about  it.  It  is  a  calm,  consistent,  bene- 
volent living.  It  will  make  a  man  feel  that  to 
be  Religious,  he  must  carry  his  Religion  out — 
must  apply  it.  These,  it  would  seem,  are  too 
often  sowing  their  Religion  only  for  another 
world,  feeling  that  in  this  they  have  nothing 
particular  to  do.  It  is  a  mistake.  We  have 
souls  here  as  much  as  we  shall  have  hereafter. 
This  is  one  sphere  of  the  soul's  action,  the  ves- 
tibule, it  is  true,  of  grander  and  higher  realities, 
but  still,  I  say,  one  sphere  of  the  soul's  action 
— this  every-day  world.  Go  out,  then — visit 
the  fatherless  and  widows  in  their  affliction — do 
good,  absolute,  practical  good,  simple  and  ordi- 
nary as  the  work  may  seem  ;  and  keep  yourselves 
unspotted  from  the  world.  This  is  Practical 
Christianity — the  Christianity  which  all  sects 
have  acknowledged,  and  the  ground  whereon 


OF    CHRISTIAN    UNION.  51 

they  will  finally  meet,  if  they  meet  at  all — nay, 
the  ground,  whereon,  even  now,  in  some  degree, 
they  are  coming  together. 

Again  ; — I  have  not  spoken  thus  because  I 
value  lightly  doctrinal  views,  or  would  sacrifice, 
or  compromise  mine.  No,  I  value  them  too 
highly.  They  make  this  great  and  shifting  order 
of  things  too  harmonious  and  cheerful,  for  me 
to  give  them  up,  and  they  seem  too  intimately 
connected  with  the  welfare  of  man  for  me  to 
keep  them  back.  And,  at  the  risk  of  being 
called  dogmatic,  I  must  say  that  I  think  these 
are  the  views  that  will  tend  to  bring  about  the 
•wished  for  state  of  things,  that  are  calculated  to 
make  men  value  practical  Christianity,  and  feel 
the  importance  of  true  morality,  and  the  signi- 
ficance of  human  brotherhood.  These  principles 
may  not  be  acknowledged,  they  may  not  be  un- 
derstood, but,  I  think,  like  leaven  they  are  to 
some  extent  working  in  the  hearts  of  all  Chris- 
tians. And  under  their  influence  Christian 
sects  may  finally  come  together,  not  in  specula- 
tive Faiths,  not  by  the  sacrifice  of  opinion,  but 
in  heart,  in  love,  in  action — as  all  the  disciples 
of  Christ  should.  Peter  may  think  circumcision 
necessary,  and  Paul  count  it  of  little  worth  ;  and 
yet  both  may  be  good  disciples  of  Jesus,  and 
entitled  to  seats  at  the  Table  of  the  Common 


52  THE    TRUE    GROUND 

Master.  Can  we  believe  that  the  Church  is  al- 
ways to  be  rent  asunder,  and  agitated  by  internal 
conflicts  ?  After  it  has  passed  through  this 
phase  for  a  time,  may  it  not  come  out,  beautiful 
in  the  robe  of  Practical  Religion,  with  the  sym- 
bol of  primeval  brotherhood  upon  its  bosom, 
with  love  in  its  eye,  and  peace  on  its  brow  ? 
Oh  !  here,  after  all,  may  be  the  ground  whereon 
God  has  ordained  that  Christian  union  shall  take 
place — the  ground  of  Practical  Benevolence, 
good-will  to  men.  We  can  all  unite  here.  Let 
us  hope  and  pray  for  this  union.  We  may  not 
see  it.  We  may  be  called  heretics  all  our  days, 
and  bear  the  brand  of  odium,  and  be  denied  the 
Christian  Name.  But  hope  still  for  that  consum- 
mation. Hope  still  that  the  time  shall  come, 
when  Christianity  shall  take  the  place  of  Secta- 
rianism, and  the  Gospel  as  it  was  ushered  in  by 
Angels,  shall  be  responded  to,  by  the  hearts  of 
its  children — "  Glory  to  God  in  the  Highest : 
on  earth,  peace,  good-will  towards  men  !" 

And,  finally,  let  us  consider,  my  friends,  the 
force  which  the  text  has  upon  us.  It  tells  us 
what  Religion  is.  It  is  not  a  curious  treatise, 
this  Text — a  fragment  of  abstract  Philosophy,  it 
is  of  personal  and  vital  interest.  It  tells  us  to 
be  pure  and  undefiled;  it  tells  you  and  me  to 
visit  the  fatherless  and  widows  in  their  affliction ; 


OF    CHRISTIAN    UNION.  53 

it  tells  you  and  me  to  keep  ourselves  unspotted 
from  the  world.  Let  us  heed  it.  Let  us  act 
upon  it ;  and  so  come  into  the  company  of  all  the 
sainted  and  the  just,  who  with  conflicting  views 
of  doctrine,  have  had  but  one  great  element  of 
Practice — indwelling  Religion. 


DISCOURSE    II. 
INTOLERANCE. 

Preached  in   the    Orchard  street  Church,  Neiv    York, 
Sabbath  afternoon,  January  15th,  1843. 

Ye  know  not  what  manner  of  spirit  ye  are  of. — 

LUKE  ix.  55. 

AMONG  the  many  topics  appropriate  to  our 
times,  I  select  for  the  present  occasion,  the  sub- 
ject of  INTOLERANCE.  It  appears  to  me  that  this 
sentiment  is  somewhat  rife  among  us,  and  it 
seems  to  be  the  sentiment  rebuked  in  the  Text 
— "  Ye  know  not  what  manner  of  spirit  ye  are 
of."  You  recollect  the  circumstances.  Jesus 
was  journeying  towards  Jerusalem.  In  the 
course  of  his  travel  he  came  to  a  village  of  the 
Samaritans.  They  did  not  receive  him.  They 
were  hostile  towards  the  Jews,  and  the  spirit  of 
Intolerance  exhibited  itself.  For,  why  would 
they  not  receive  Christ  ?  For  no  other  reason 
than  simply  because  his  face  was  set  to  go  to 
Jerusalem,  the  city  of  those  with  whom  they 
were  at  strife.  Here,  I  say,  was  the  spirit  of 
Intolerance.  But  it  did  not  end  here.  The 


INTOLERANCE.  55 

disciples,  James  and  John,  caught  the  flame, 
and  they  broke  out — "  Lord,  wilt  thou  that  we 
command  fire  to  come  down  from  heaven,  and 
consume  them,  as  Elias  did  ?"  But  they  ad- 
dressed a  Being  now  in  whom  such  an  earthly 
and  unholy  passion  could  not  dwell.  "  Ye  know 
not  what  manner  of  spirit  ye  are  of,"  said  he  ; — 
"  For  the  Son  of  Man  is  not  come  to  destroy 
men's  lives,  but  to  save  them."  And  calmly  he 
went  on  to  another  village. 

But  this  rebuke  was  not  alone  for  that  group 
on  the  road  to  Jerusalem.  Wherever  man  is 
bitter  and  revengeful  against  his  erring  or  dis- 
senting brother,  no  matter  how  eminent  his 
standing,  how  ardent  his  professions,  how  com- 
mendable his  zeal,  this  suggestion  comes  to  him 
with  all  its  force  ; — "  Ye  know  not  what  manner 
of  spirit  ye  are  of."  It  is,  doubtless,  a  rebuke 
that  needs  to  be  heeded  in  this  age.  We  do  not 
hang  Quakers,  we  do  not  exile  Baptists,  we  rear 
no  Inquisition,  we  sharpen  no  martyr-stakes — 
but  these  are  only  forms.  The  spirit  of  Intole- 
rance may  live,  though  the  power  of  advancing 
Freedom  and  Christianity  may  deprive  it  of  its 
faggot  and  its  axe.  The  wrong  sentiment,  the 
deep,  bad  motive,  these  are  what  Christianity 
aims  at.  Away  down  into  the  caverns  of  the 
human  heart,  it  looks  with  its  piercing  eye;  and 


56  INTOLERANCE. 

if  a  chafed  and  hostile  feeling  is  there,  it  is 
enough  for  its  rebuke  and  its  discipline.  The 
red  lightning  did  not  come  down  from  heaven, 
according  to  the  impulses  of  the  Disciples,  and 
therefore  no  outward  evil  was  accomplished. 
But  the  bad  spirit  was  alive — the  bitter,  revenge- 
ful motive ;  and  Christ  saw  it  and  reproved  it. 
Now,  then,  because  I  see  different  sects  allowed 
the  rights  of  conscience,  because  Churches  of 
every  name  point  their  glittering  spires  to  heaven, 
because  opinions  are  freely  broached,  and  topics 
openly  discussed,  and  loud  professions  of  philan- 
thropy and  busy  movings  of  zeal  are  all  around 
me,  I  am  not  therefore  convinced  that  there  is  no 
Intolerance.  I  say,  the  form  of  Intolerance  may 
be  different — it  may  not  be  the  Papal  Interdict, 
the  thumb-screw,  or  the  rack,  but  it  may  lie  in 
Jesuitical  arts,  in  whispered  calumnies,  in  slan- 
derous words,  in  angry,  violent  philippics.  In 
short,  as  it  has  come  to  be  the  peculiarity  of  the 
age  not  to  war  with  weapons  of  steel,  nor  to  at- 
tack with  physical  force,  so  much  as  to  speak 
through  arguments,  pamphlets,  books  and  moral 
influences ;  so  as  the  sword  and  the  torch  were 
used  by  Intolerance  in  that  past  age,  when  the 
sword  and  the  torch  were  fashionable — this  age 
may  see  intolerance  clothed  in  the  meek  gar- 
ments of  modern  Christian  professors,  peeping 


INTOLERANCE.  57 

out  from  "  highly  respectable  and  virtuous"  cir- 
cles, and  speaking  in  the  anger  of  the  impatient 
conservative,  or  the  zeal  of  the  enthusiastic  re- 
former. Let  me,  then,  speak  of  Intolerance  as 
something  still  existing,  and  therefore  as  some- 
thing of  which  it  is  still  appropriate  to  speak. 

I.  Of  Religious  Intolerance.  If  this  spirit  of 
intolerance  is  unamiable  any  where,  especially  is 
it  when  found  in  connection  with  the  Name  of 
Christ.  And  yet  I  know  of  no  sphere  where  it 
seems  rooted  so  deep,  or  where  it  kindles  so 
high,  as  upon  the  subject  of  Religion.  This 
excommunication  for  a  difference  of  opinion,  this 
perfect  hatred  that  seems,  at  least,  to  exist  not 
only  towards  opinions  but  wiew,  this  dividing  of 
the  Church  of  Jesus  into  hostile  sects — is  it  like 
a  manifestation  of  that  Teacher,  who  came  to 
gather  men  to  a  knowledge  of  one  Father — to 
the  fold  of  one  Shepherd  ?  And  yet,  where  will 
you  find  more  bitter  warfare  than  that  which  is 
waged  for  Religious  Doctrines  ?  Where  see 
more  ridicule  and  aspersion  than  in  the  columns 
of  the  Religious  newspaper?  Where  find  more 
coldness  or  alienation  than  among  Chiistians  of 
different  views  ?  Now  there  must  be  some  cause 
for  this  Intolerance.  And  it  appears  to  me  that 
it  may  arise  in  part,  at  least,  from  a  misconcep- 
tion, and  this  misconception  seems  founded  on 
5* 


58  INTOLERANCE. 

the  idea  that  a  particular  Belief  is  essential  to 
Christian  Character.  Now  I  wish  to  be  under- 
stood upon  this  point.  All  must  agree  that  Faith 
in  Christ  is  absolutely  necessary  to  entitle  a  man 
to  the  name  of  Christian.  But  within  this  avowal 
of  Christian  Faith  how  wide  may  be  the  diver- 
sity of  knowledge,  of  reasoning  power,  of  dispo- 
sition !  These  may  all  lead  to  different  views 
of  the  Savior's  Doctrines,  and  to  different  per- 
ceptions as  to  what  are  and  what  are  not  his 
Teachings.  And  yet  I  affirm  that  no  one  can 
truly  see  Christ,  and  drink  in  the  Influence  of 
his  Character,  and  not  be  a  Christian  at  heart. 
And  there  is  no  one  sect  in  the  ample  field  of 
Christendom,  that  has  not  Christian  Truth  enough 
to  kindle  Christian  Life  in  its  members.  Let 
me  say  again  by  way  of  explanation,  that  I  do 
not  wish  men  to  be  indifferent  to  doctrines,  or  to 
sectarian  views.  In  the  glow  of  generous  and 
truly  Christian  feeling,  men  will  often  say — 
"  Well,  it  makes  no  difference  about  doctrines, 
provided  the  heart  is  right."  It  does  make  a  dif- 
ference— and  the  difference  is  just  as 'wide  as 
the  gap  between  Truth  and  Error.  It  makes 
this  difference — that  the  soul  that  imbibes  an 
erroneous  instead  of  a  true  doctrine,  is  less 
happy,  and  less  advanced  in  its  true  life,  than  it 
might  be.  Still,  there  is  truth  at  the  bottom  of 


INTOLERANCE.  59 

the  expression — "  It  makes  no  difference  what  a 
man  believes  ;"  and  it  lies  at  the  point  at  which 
I  am  now  arriving.  The  meaning  of  it  is  this — 
that  the  Truth  is  worth  but  little  unless  it  pro- 
duce its  fruits,  and,  if  it  produce  its  fruits,  this  is 
the  chief  end ;  and  there  is  a  conviction  in  say- 
ing this,  that  in  all  sects  there  is  Truth  enough 
to  produce  good  fruits.  And  I  say  so  too.  In 
every  Christian  denomination,  there  is  enough  of 
vital,  kindling  Christianity  to  make  good  hearts. 
No  one  can  sit  at  the  foot  of  the  Cross,  as  a 
devoted,  earnest  disciple,  and  not  feel  the  light 
that  rays  out  from  it  moving  upon  his  soul.  No 
one  can  take  the  simple  Christian  Law  of  Love  to 
God,  and  love  to  man,  and  go  by  its  guidance, 
and  yet  be  an  immoral  man.  No  one  can  stand 
by  that  cleft  rock,  and  that  irradiated  Tomb, 
and  not  believe  that  Religion  appeals  to  some- 
thing deeper  than  time  and  sense,  to  which  we 
must  awake,  and  for  which  we  must  strive. 
These  are  indisputable  Facts,  first  principles, 
that  are  tacitly  admitted  by  all  who  assume  the 
Christian  name.  But,  I  say,  this  matter  is  not 
virtually  thus  regarded  by  many  sects.  A  man's 
variation  in  Christian  Belief,  is  looked  upon  as 
a  token  of  depreciated  moral  and  Religious  cha- 
racter. The  unworthiness  of  such  a  disciple  to 
approach  the  Communion  Table  is  asserted  upon 


60  INTOLERANCE. 

no  other  ground,  and  his  probable  moral  conduct 
is  traced  to  and  linked  with  his  Faith — and  his 
faith,  often,  not  as  it  really  is,  but  as  men  see  it 
with  their  eyes,  colored  as  they  may  be  by  igno- 
rance and  prejudice.  This,  then,  I  repeat,  would 
seem  to  be  one  cause  of  the  spirit  of  Intolerance 
that  prevails  among  various  Christian  denomina- 
tions. 

Again  ; — we  may  trace  this  intolerant  spirit 
back  to  the  idea,  that  a  man  is  actually  to  blame 
for  being  in  error — that  if  he  is  in  error  he  knows 
it  all  the  while,  and  only  persists  in  it  from  a 
perverse  and  wicked  disposition.  Hence,  men 
are  denounced  for  teaching  such  and  such  doc- 
trines, are  scolded  at  and  sneered  at — but  not 
reasoned  with,  or  pitied.  If  the  gross  assump- 
tion that  I  am  right  and  you  are  wrong  be  admit- 
ted, without  entering  into  the  merits  of  the  case, 
still,  I  know  not  why  I  should  abuse,  or  denounce 
you.  Surely,  you  may  think  you  are  right,  and 
if  it  be  a  delusion  to  think  so,  still,  it  demands 
a  labor  of  love,  an  effort  of  reason — not  a  display 
of  intolerance.  But  how  men  will  knit  their 
brows,  and  vent  their  bitterness  at  the  name  of 
a  heretic  !  A  Heretic  !  Why,  one  would  think, 
from  the  common  sentiment,  that  a  heretic  was 
one  who  had  not  only  unchristianized  but  un- 
manned himself — one  going  forth  on  purpose  to 


INTOLERANCE.  61 

destroy  and  pollute,  laying  sacreligious  hands  on 
the  holiest  things  from  a  spirit  of  sheer  malignity 
and  wickedness,  and  opposing  himself  to  the  re- 
ceived Faith  from  a  scornful  and  sinful  spirit. 
But  now  it  is  possible  that  a  heretic  may  be  a 
very  different  person  from  all  this.  He  may  be 
a  meek  seeker  for  Truth,  blinded,  perhaps,  but 
sincere  ;  he  may  be  a  man  who  has  studied  and 
thought,  and  who  in  conscience  can  not  adopt 
the  received  ideas ;  he  may  be  a  man  who 
nourishes  all  the  Religious  affections,  who  drinks 
Religion  with  a  keener  thirst,  and  from  purer 
springs — or  thinks  he  does — because  he  has 
thrown  by  what  seemed  to  him  impediments  in 
the  way  to  the  Fountain-head — impediments  to 
him,  although  to  you  they  may  be  sacred  articles 
of  Faith.  A  heretic  may  be  such  a  man  as  this, 
and  surely  he  is  not  to  be  denounced  and  abused 
for  all  these  peculiarities.  And  look  ye,  who 
burning  with  intolerance,  would  almost  call  down 
fire  from  heaven  upon  him,  he  may  be,  after  all, 
farther  advanced  in  Divine  Truth  and  Divine 
Life  than  you,  with  all  your  faith,  ancient  and 
wide-spread  as  it  is.  Such  a  thing,  I  say,  is 
possible. 

But  while  intolerance  like  this  would  seem 
to  fasten  more  particularly  upon  the  Orthodox 
than  upon  the  heretic  sects — upon  the  con- 


62  INTOLERANCE. 

servative  rather  than  the  Reforming  Religionist, 
it  may  be  found  with  the  latter,  as  well  as  with 
the  former — and  I  think  it  will  be  found  there 
in  our  day.  The  Samaritans  in  refusing  to  re- 
ceive Jesus  exhibited  Intolerance,  but  the  Dis- 
ciples, in  their  turn,  manifested  the  very  senti- 
ment that  excited  them.  How  common  this  is  ! 
The  spirit  we  denounce,  we  oppose  in  the  very 
same  spirit.  The  boasting  Liberal  approaches 
the  village  of  the  Orthodox  Samaritan,  but  he 
will  have  none  of  him,  because  his  face  is  set  in 
a  suspicious  direction.  "  What  an  intolerant 
bigot,"  exclaims  the  liberal,  "  Oh  !  that  I  could 
call  down  fire  from  heaven."  Nay,  but  tell  me, 
my  friend,  is  there  not  more  than  one  of  you  who 
is  intolerant  now  ?  I  deprecate  persecution  for 
heresy,  then — but  I  equally  deprecate  the  spirit 
in  which  the  heretic  deals  out  his  accusations 
of  "  superstitious,"  "  bigoted,"  "  timid"  and 
"  time-serving."  I  want  no  man  abused  because 
he  rejects  the  Miracles,  but  I  do  not  want  him 
to  abuse  me  because  I  hold  to  them.  I  affirm 
that  it  is  unjust  for  the  Orthodox  professor  to 
un-christianize  the  Universalist,  but  I  maintain 
that  it  is  just  as  wrong  for  the  Universalist  to 
call  the  Orthodox  a  hypocrite,  or  a  dupe.  And, 
I  say,  such  a  spirit  as  is  manifested  in  the  last- 
named  illustration,  is  too  rife  in  our  day. 


INTOLERANCE.  63 

Such,  then,  is  Religious  Intolerance.  I  would 
that  it  were  done  away  with.  This  is  the  union 
of  Christians  that  I  ask  for.  Not  an  identity  of 
doctrine,  not  an  indifference  to  articles  of  belief, 
not  a  worshipping  in  one  place  or  one  form — but 
a  recognition  of  the  great  common  humanity,  of 
the  right  of  opinion,  of  the  oneness  of  the  Christ- 
like  Image  seen  through  many  human  forms. 
Alas  !  we  shall  never  have  this  sentiment,  as  the 
tide  of  thought  and  feeling  runs  at  present.  We 
shall  never  have  this  sentiment,  until  we  rise  to 
more  intimate  Communion  with  that  One  who 
could  Bless  even  while  men  cursed,  could  heal 
while  they  smote,  could  Pray  for  them  when 
they  pierced ;  and  even  when  turned  from  their 
homes  and  denied  their  hospitality,  could  say  to 
those  who  breathed  the  bitterness  of  vengeance 
in  his  behalf — "  Ye  know  not  what  manner  of 
spirit  ye  are  of — the  Son  of  Man  is  not  come  to 
destroy  men's  lives,  but  to  save  them." 

II.  Again  ; — I  would  allude  to  the  spirit  of 
Intolerance,  as  connected  with  our  Philanthropic 
and  Moral  Reforms.  Men  may  proclaim  their 
love  for  their  fellows,  may  be  zealous  in  forming 
associations,  may  boast  how  consistently  they 
stand  upon  the  great  Christian  platform ;  but  I 
would  say  to  them — it  is  not  only  the  work  thou 
doest,  but  the  spirit  in  which  thou  workest,  that 


64  INTOLERANCE. 

will  determine  upon  what  platform  you  stand. 
The  Christian  Idea  has  been  in  the  world  a  long 
time,  but  alas  !  too  little  has  the  Christian  Idea 
been  suffered  to  accomplish.  "  A  grain  of 
wheat,"  said  the  Savior,  "  must  first  fall  into 
the  ground  and  die" — beautifully  alluding  to 
himself,  but  also  giving  an  emblem  of  the  fate  of 
his  Doctrine.  That  too  has  been  buried — buried 
not  so  much  beneath  persecutions,  as  beneath 
corruptions.  Free  and  glorious  from  the  martyr's 
ashes  and  the  martyr's  blood,  sprung  the  green 
harvest  of  the  Church  ;  but  when  instead  of  the 
Martyr  we  had  the  Priest,  instead  of  the  sandalled 
Apostle  the  mitred  Hierarch,  then  the  Church 
became  worldly,  and  the  germ  of  Truth  had  to 
lie  beneath  the  feet  of  the  luxurious  and  the 
bigoted,  until  its  fruit  sprung  forth  again  in 
some  lowly  and  despised  Reformer,  that  must 
also  die  ere  he  could  give  it  life  and  diffusion. 
This  has  been  the  fate  of  the  Christian  Idea.  It 
has  not  been  carried  out  in  the  Christian  spirit, 
and  it  could  not  develope  without  that.  Men 
have  met  Pagan  Relics  with  Christian  Relics, 
heretic  armies  with  Christian  armies,  ejection 
from  Samaritan  villages  with  Christian  invoca- 
tions of  fire  from  heaven.  "  Ye  know  not  what 
manner  of  spirit  ye  are  of" — may  not  this  be 
said  to  some  even  at  this  day,  whose  idea  may 


INTOLERANCE.  65 

be  true,  whose  premises  may  be  right,  but  whose 
instruments  are  carnal  and  deadly  ? 

Take  the  Temperance  Reform.  Is  an  Intole- 
rant spirit  right  in  this  cause  ?  You  say  yon 
man  is  a  debased  and  polluted  drunkard — you 
deem  that  rigid  measures  are  the  best  for  him. 
Nay  but,  my  friend,  what  induced  you  in  the 
first  place  to  plead  for  Temperance  ?  A  love  of 
your  race,  you  say — your  heart  bled  to  see  the 
miseries  wrought  by  intoxication.  But  is  this 
the  end  of  your  tenderness  ?  Have  you  no  mantle 
of  Charity  to  cast  over  those  tottering,  blighted 
limbs  ?  Have  you  nothing  of  the  spirit  of  Him 
who  could  seek  the  healing  of  the  moral  leper 
covered  all  over  with  sin  ?  Have  you  nothing 
of  the  love  that  can  find  something  of  the  common 
man  in  that  ruined  clay,  some  tire  that  was 
kindled  at  a  mother's  breast  in  that  hard  heart, 
some  chord  almost  but  not  quite  dead  ?  Ay, 
you  can  find  this  in  the  drunkard,  but  you  can 
have  no  patience  with  him  who  deals  out  the 
liquid  fire,  and  puts  it  to  his  parched  lips.  Nay, 
even  here,  I  plead  for  tolerance — tolerance  with 
the  man,  I  speak  not  of  his  business.  I  ask  no 
thunders  of  the  law  to  smite  that  dealer,  detestable 
as  is  his  traffic.  He  too  is  a  man,  and,  believe 
me,  reason,  the  power  of  conscience,  the  law  of 
love  and  right,  shall  touch  even  him.  Forbear 
6 


66  INTOLERANCE. 

thy  fulminations  of  wrath.  Perhaps  he  sees  not 
even  yet  the  force  of  thy  argument.  Perhaps 
the  words  that  shall  pierce  his  heart  are  already 
winging  their  way.  But,  at  all  events,  be  not 
intolerant.  Trust  reason,  love,  Christianity — 
these  are  the  only  agents  for  such  a  Reform. 

I  pass  into  the  Anti-Slavery  meeting.  Here, 
I  discover,  is  agitated  a  great  truth — the  natural 
equality  of  all  men — the  right  of  the  poorest  and 
lowest  to  be  free,  to  breathe  God's  air  upon 
what  hill-top  he  will,  to  follow  His  sunshine 
around  the  earth  if  he  list — the  wrong  of  holding 
him  in  bondage,  of  putting  him  by  force  to  do 
another's  work.  But  the  Idea  and  the  spirit,  at 
times,  seem  widely  separated.  The  quondam 
Philanthropist  now  seems  to  struggle  for  words 
to  express  his  sense  not  merely  of  the  traffic  but 
of  the  men  who  acknowledge  it.  They  are 
hounds  and  murderers,  he  says- — hard  hearted  and 
brutally  wicked.  I  would  say  to  him — Friend, 
this  is  not  the  legitimate  spirit  of  thy  Reform. 
Have  some  pity  even  for  the  slave-holder.  Do 
not  ever  paint  him  as  such  a  grim,  ferocious 
monster.  He  too  is  a  man.  He  may  not  have 
reasoned  as  far  as  thou.  Many  things  may  stand 
between  him  and  the  light.  Be  not  so  violent 
and  sweeping  in  thy  charges.  His  position  may 
be  the  result  of  wrong  reasoning,  not  of  moral 


INTOLERANCE.  67 

obliquity.  I  have  sat  at  the  table  of  the  slave- 
holder. I  found  him  open  and  generous.  1  have 
slept  beneath  his  roof  with  no  fears  of  murder 
by  him.  I  have  been  in  the  bosom  of  his  family 
— I  found  there  tender  and  beautiful  affections, 
the  sunshine  of  love,  and  the  sentiments  of  chas- 
tity and  reverence.  I  have  opened  the  Records 
of  our  country's  fame  and  his  name  was  upon 
them.  There  are  places  of  red  battle  for  human 
rights, — his  blood  stained  them.  Thou  mistakest 
thy  work  when  thou  callest  him  dog,  murderer, 
monster.  Conscience  compels  thee  to  speak  the 
Truth,  thou  sayest — ay,  but  conscience  does  not 
compel  thee  to  speak  vindictively,  and  without 
discrimination.  Thy  true  work  is  to  love,  to 
reason,  to  strive  with  moral  suasion — not  to  spit 
out  words  of  Philanthrophy  in  drops  of  fire — not 
to  cry,  "  Human  Brotherhood  !  and  cursed  be  all 
who  do  not  say  so  with  me." 

Thus,  then,  in  our  Philanthropic  Reforms,  let 
there  be  no  intolerance.  To  those  who  cherish 
it,  Christianity  says — "  Ye  know  not  what  man- 
ner of  spirit  ye  are  of." 

There  is,  however,  another  class  who  cannot 
brook  the  mention  of  Reform,  or  Reformers. 
To  them  such  things  are  disagreeable.  They 
feel  pretty  much  as  the  sluggard  does,  when  one 
somewhat  rudely,  with  determined  hands,  says 


68  INTOLERANCE. 

to  him — "  sleep  no  more,  it  is  time  to  rise." 
They  think  that  the  world  is  well  enough  as  it 
is,  and  that  no  good  can  come  of  striving  to  alter 
present  circumstances.  This  they  say,  because 
they  are  quite  comfortable,  and  that,  to  them,  is 
enough.  But  they  must  remember  that  there 
are  many  others  in  the  world — they  have  innu- 
merable brethren.  These  cry  out  against  cold 
and  hunger  and  moral  deprivation,  and  there 
must  be  Reform.  Those  to  whom  Reform  is  an 
alarming  cry,  are  ready  to  exclaim  against  every 
Reformer,  as  a  low  annihilator,  a  house-breaker, 
or  a  highway-robber — somebody  who  is  bent 
upon  disturbing  order  and  introducing  anarchy, 
upon  uprooting  society  and  giving  reins  to  licen- 
tiousness— in  short,  as  a  very  suspicious  and 
fearful  character.  This  too  is  intolerance.  Lis- 
ten to  all  the  Reformer  has  to  say.  Seek  not  to 
prevent  discussion,  or  to  shut  out  petition.  Ac- 
cept what  is  reasonable,  reject  what  is  false,  and 
fear  not  that  Truth  shall  ever  be  destroyed. 
But,  to  denounce  without  hearing,  to  abuse  be- 
cause he  touches  some  selfish  chord,  to  call  him 
fanatic  and  licentious,  this  is  Intolerance — if  ye 
do  so,  "  Ye  know  not  what  spirit  ye  are  of." 

III.  I  would  allude  to  one  more  manifestation 
of  the  spirit  of  Intolerance.  I  mean  the  manner 
in  which  we  too  often  treat  criminals  and  wrong- 


INTOLERANCE.  69 

doers.  The  Crime,  I  maintain,  is  to  be  abhorred 
and  destroyed.  But  not  so  the  Criminal.  He 
is  a  man — he  has  a  soul — the  sympathies  of  our 
nature  are  not  dead  in  him.  I  know,  sometimes 
it  would  almost  seem  so.  It  would  seem  as  if 
every  spark  of  generous  or  virtuous  fire  that  once 
may  have  burned  in  that  heart,  must  long  since 
have  smouldered  into  obscene  ashes.  That 
gore-stained  hand,  that  scarred  brow,  that  lip  all 
convulsed  with  derisive  laughter,  or  twitching 
with  hate  and  fiery  scorn — "  Oh  !  here  is  one  to 
be  crushed,"  you  say,  "  loathed,  blotted  from 
existence,  with  all  the  terrors  of  the  law,  strong 
and  bloody,  heaped  upon  him."  Not  so — I  af- 
firm again,  not  so.  Take  that  criminal,  shut 
him  up  that  he  harm  not  his  fellows,  and  then 
labor  with  him  for  a  nobler  end  than  destruction 
— reformation.  It  is  man -like  to  crush  and  de- 
stroy— it  is  Christ-like  to  purify  and  build  up. 
There  is  some  hope  for  the  most  depraved. 
And  if  we  were  not  so  intolerant,  thought  more 
of  the  criminal  as  a  man,  thought  more  of  reform- 
ation than  revenge,  we  should  smite  upon  that 
iron  heart  with  words  of  love,  patiently,  uuwea- 
riedly,  until  we  should  find  some  pulse  of  good 
throbbing  yet,  perhaps,  with  the  mystic  beatings 
which  it  learned  in  some  departed  mother's  arms. 
Holy  memories  of  childhood  shall  rush  upon  that 
6* 


70  INTOLERANCE. 

long-shrouded  soul — voices  of  early  innocence 
shall  ring  like  Sabbath  Church-bells  long  forgot- 
ten, calling  him  back  to  innocence  and  to  peace. 
Such  things  have  been.  Can  they  not  be  again  ? 
At  all  events,  I  say,  be  not  so  intolerant  towards 
the  Criminal.  Separate  him  more,  in  your  mind, 
from  his  crime.  Think  of  the  associations  which 
may  have  surrounded  him  from  his  younger  days. 
Think  of  the  want  in  which  he  was  born,  the 
vice  into  which  he  was  baptized.  Oh  !  it  is  the 
true  Christian  work  to  Reform.  Christ  died  for 
all — for  the  very  murderer  at  his  Cross.  Who 
says  any  man  is  hopeless,  utterly  degraded,  fit 
only  to  be  destroyed  ?  He  falters  from  the  con- 
fidence of  Christ.  His  revenge  gets  the  better 
of  his  reason.  He  knows  not  what  spirit  he  is 
of. 

Let  us  not  be  intolerant,  then,  even  to  the 
Criminal.  Let  us  secure  ourselves  and  him  from 
any  more  harm.  Let  us  inflict  a  righteous  retri- 
bution. But  let  us  look  upon  the  matter  from  a 
Christian  point  of  view. 

But,  thus  far,  we  have  spoken  of  Criminals — 
men  amenable  to  the  severest  retributions  of  the 
law — men  whose  deeds  are  of  the  blackest  die. 
I  pass  from  these  to  speak  of  the  conduct  of  So- 
ciety too  often  exhibited  towards  those  who  step 
aside  from  the  path  of  virtue,  under  various  cir- 


INTOLERANCE.  71 

cumstances.  Let  the  offender  be  one  who  has 
been  lured  to  ruin  by  villanous  art  and  sinful 
fascination.  How  soon 

"  The  sharp  scorn  of  men 

On  her  once  bright  and  stately  head  is  cast!" 

How  quick  the  expanded  brow  gathers  into  a 
frown  !  How  soon  the  gentle  mood  of  friendship 
is  changed  to  unmingled  loathing  and  contempt ! 
Is  all  this  right  ?  Shall  we  never  listen  to  the 
pleadings  of  charity  ?  Who  can  read  that  heart  1 
Who  can  trace  its  weary,  fearful  struggles  ? 
Who  knows  the  depth  of  the  sharp  agony  that  is 
preying  upon  it  now  ?  Rejected,  scorned,  driven 
from  the  light  of  home — paternal  lips  open  to 
discard — maternal  hands  raised  to  curse — hope 
withered  in  its  spring-time — affection  repelled 
and  driven  freezing  to  its  fountain — the  sanctity 
of  woman's  sisterhood  averted — the  sneer  of 
men  quivering  like  sharp  lightning  on  his  face. 
Oh  !  is  there  no  room  for  mercy  here — no  hand 
of  pity  stretched  out  to  restore — no  Christian 
love  that  will  yet  seek  to  save  ? 

Again  ; — some  hitherto  respected  member  of 
Society  commits  a  wrong.  How  prone  are  we 
to  jump  at  conclusions  !  How  eager  to  denounce  ! 
There  may  be  some  palliation.  At  least,  there  is 
but  the  frailty  of  our  common  manhood.  You 
and  I  had  originally  no  patent  of  virtue  in  dis- 


72  INTOLERANCE. 

tinctjon  from  the  man  who  to  day  has  fallen. 
Go  back  to  his  earliest  temptation.  See  the  first 
moment  when  it  fastens  upon  him.  See  the  first 
moment  when  that  seemingly  impregnable  honor, 
yields  to  the  subtle  assault  or  the  vigorous  attack. 
Mark  that  rich  treasure  self -respect ,  as  it  dies 
out  from  the  soul,  long  before  the  keen  eyes  of 
the  uncharitable  world  detect  a  flaw.  See  the 
resolution  and  the  struggle,  the  momentary  vic- 
tory and  the  relapse — the  victim  of  sin,  now 
nerved  by  old  feelings  of  virtue,  struggling  "  like 
a  strong  swimmer  with  his  agony"  and  his  shame 
— now  listless  and  hopeless,  like  one  who  has 
gone  too  far  to  repent.  And  when  the  overt  act 
is  committed,  and  the  staring  world  sees  all,  it 
overlooks  the  struggle,  overlooks  the  temptation, 
it  forgets  the  common  frailty — it  sees  only  the 
vice  ;  and  with  an  indignant  feeling,  as  though 
its  immaculate  virtue  were  insulted/  it  cries  out 
-T-"  Hunt  him  and  hang  him  /"  I  say  this  is  In- 
tolerance. I  mean  this  disposition  to  show 
judgment  without  mercy,  this  relish  for  detect- 
ing faults,  this  lack  of  pity,  this  blind  fury  of 
reyenge  that  as  often  does  wrong  as  does  the 
weak  mercy  that  forgoes  all.  When  we  thus 
feel,  truly  is  it,  that  we  know  not  what  spirit 
we  are  of. 

I  shall  say  nothing  further  at  present  upon 


INTOLERANCE.  73 

this  subject  of  Intolerance.  I  have  spoken  only 
for  Christian  Love,  only  for  Justice.  I  have  not 
been  pleading  for  error,  for  wrong-doing,  for 
crime — but  only  that  we  should  regard  the  com- 
mon manhood  that  lies  behind  all  error,  and 
wrong-doing,  and  crime.  Upon  this  manhood 
let  us  ever  look,  as  upon  something  which  con- 
tains a  common  element  with  ourselves,  some- 
thing to  love,  to  labor  and  to  pray  for.  How 
shall  we  do  this  ?  My  friends,  we  must  sit  at 
the  Feet  of  Christ,  and  drink  in  his  great  Law 
of  Love.  We  cannot  draw  this  Love  from  or- 
ganizations, we  cannot  create  it  by  associations 
— we  must  derive  it  from  Christ,  and  then  carry 
it  into  our  associations.  Men  do  not  go  to  Christ 
for  it,  they  go  into  associations  without  it,  and 
hence  the  intolerance  that  abounds  in  the  most 
professedly  Philanthrophic  movements. 

Christianity  is  against  intolerance.  She  goes 
forth  to  conquest,  yea  to  certain  conquest,  though 
the  consummation  may  seem  long  delayed.  But 
in  going  forth  she  rejects  the  torch  and  the  axe, 
relying  upon  the  omnipotence  of  Truth  and 
Love.  She  has  a  battle  to  fight,  a  revolution  to 
accomplish — but  in  fighting  that  battle  she  uses 
no  carnal  weapons,  she  invokes  not  the  aid  of 
War,  cruel  and  vengeful  War,  that  tramples  its 
purple  wine-press  whose  red  clusters  are  human 


74  INTOLERANCE- 

hearts.  She  trusts  the  intrinsic  Goodness  of  her 
cause,  and  the  all-subduing  power  of  her  influ- 
ence, .^nd  when  that  revolution  is  accomplish- 
ed, the  first  will  be  last  and  the  last  first.  She 
win  pass  by  the  sepulchres  of  Conquerors  and 
Kings,  to  re-build  and  re-garnish  the  Tombs  of 
the  Prophets — she  will  pass  by  the  bigot  in  mitre 
and  in  lawn,  and  elevate  the  poor  widow  who 
h.as  labored  contentedly  in  her  sphere  cherishing 
the  flowers  of  holiness  in  her  bosom.  And  she 
will  abolish  this  war  of  creeds,  and  she  will  still 
this  angry  controversy.  And  she  will  gather  the 
children  of  men  into  one  great  Temple,  whose 
worship  shall  be  Holiness,  whose  Creed  shall  be 
Love,  whose  dome  shall  open  up  into  the  illimit- 
able universe  of  God.  But  ere  this  great  work 
shall  be  accomplished,  as  one  of  the  first  condi- 
tions of  its  accomplishment,  Intolerance,  deep- 
rooted,  bitter  Intolerance  must  be  eradicated 
from  the  hearts  of  men.  Hearer,  it  must  be 
eradicated  from  your  heart  and  mine  ere  we  are 
Christians  indeed,  ere  \ye  are  fitted  for  the  ele- 
ments and  the  association  of  Heaven. 


DISCOURSE   III. 

THE  WORK  OF  CHRISTIANITY  IN  THE  HUM\N 
SOUL. 

Preached  in  the  Elizabeth  street   Church,  JVew    York, 
Sabbath  evening,  January  15/A,  1843. 

Think  not  that  I  am  come  to  destroy  the  law  or  the 
prophets  ;  I  am  not  come  to  destroy,  but  to  fulfil. 

MATTHEW  v.  17. 

THUS  sublimely  did  Jesus  proclaim  his  own 
Mission.  "  I  am  not  come  to  destroy,  but  to 
FULFIL."  I  do  not  pretend  that  in  interpreting 
these  Words  as  I  do,  I  present  their  whole  ap- 
plication, but  their  scope  includes  the  special 
point  upon  which  I  propose  to  dwell,  and  it  is 
this.  Christ  came  to  raise  men  above  the  ne- 
cessity of  outward  Laws  and  arbitrary  institutions, 
and  make  them  a  Law  to  themselves,  living 
from  a  spiritual  perception  and  a  Divine  Life  in 
their  own  souls,  and  so  in  accordance  with  the 
Law  of  God,  which  Law  is,  in  other  words,  the 
only  mode  of  the  soul's  perfection — its  Holiness 
and  welfare.  This  is  not  proclaiming  that  all 
outward  Laws  are  wrong,  that  all  arbitrary  in- 
stitutions are  falsehoods.  They  have  had  a  good 


76  THE    WORK    OF    CHRISTIANITY 

mission  to  perform.  They  have  been  restrictive 
and  suggestive.  The  law  that  tells  me  I  shall 
not  steal,  and  if  I  do  steal  my  right  hand  shall 
be  cut  off,  may  be  a  good  law,  in  its  season. 
There  is  a  time  when  man's  intellect  is  limited, 
when  his  moral  sentiments  are  undeveloped,  and 
in  order  to  prevent  him  from  doing  wrong,  the 
first  lesson  that  he  can  learn  is,  that  he  will  re- 
ceive injury,  if  he  does  steal.  Now  to  pause 
with  this,  and  to  look  upon  it  from  the  Christian 
point  of  view,  makes  the  Law  often  very  meagre 
and  very  ignoble.  All  that  it  has  done  thus  far 
is  to  excite  a  selfish  fear.  The  man  will  not 
steal,  because,  if  he  does  steal,  he  will  receive 
hurt.  Why  it  is  wrong  to  steal,  he  does  not 
know,  and  the  disposition  to  steal  is  in  his  heart. 
But  there  stands  the  Law  and  the  penalty. 
«  Thou  shalt  not  steal"—"  if  thou  dost  steal  thou 
losest  thy  right  hand."  And  he  pauses  and  de- 
sists from  his  purpose.  But  now  he  may  be  led 
to  take  another  step,  and  ask — "  Why  should  I 
not  steal  ?  Why  do  this  law  and  this  penalty 
exist  ?  I  know  they  do  exist,  but  the  mere  fact 
of  their  existence  is  not  satisfactory.  I  see 
things  existing  in  the  material  world,  but  there 
is  a  reason  for  their  existence."  This  will  na- 
turally lead  him  to  inquire  into  the  nature  and 
the  reason  of  right  and  wrong,  and  then  he  may 


IN    THE    HUMAN    SOUL.  77 

desist  from  stealing,  from  other  motives  than  the 
mere  fear  of  losing  his  right  hand.  So  you  see 
this  law,  and  laws  of  a  like  character,  may  be 
good  in  their  places — they  restrain  men  from 
doing  wrong — they  are  suggestive  of  moral  dis- 
tinctions. So  with  many  institutions.  Take, 
for  instance,  the  Mosaic  Ritual.  Its  ceremonies 
were  suggestive,  were  premonitory.  They  led 
the  dark  idolator,  and  the  passion-blinded  Jew, 
up  to  a  Perception  of  the  Oneness  of  the  Deity, 
and  by  material  Symbols  prepared  them  for 
spiritual  realities.  To  have  introduced  them,  at 
once,  into  the  broad  Dispensation  of  Christianity, 
would  have  been  a  violent  transition,  unlike  any 
other  Process  of  the  Creator,  who  in  His  uni- 
verse brings  forth  first  the  blade,  then  the  ear, 
after  that  the  full  corn  in  the  ear.  Shall  we  say, 
then,  that  the  connecting  links,  the  preparatory 
steps,  were  unnecessary  and  false  ?  Every  Law 
that  restrains  men  from  wrong,  or  suggests  the 
right ;  every  institution  that  opens  up  a  clearer 
perception  of  the  reality  of  things,  is  good  in  its 
place.  Christ's  Dispensation  does  not  contradict 
them,  does  not  repudiate  them,  but  it  supersedes 
them — rather  it  absorbs  them — as  the  ocean  ab- 
sorbs the  countless  water-drops,  the  rivulets  and 
streams  that  have  flowed  through  many  sections 
— absorbs  them  all  in  its  boundless  bosom,  and, 
7 


78  THE    WORK    OF    CHRISTIANITY 

accomplishing  what  these  lesser  streams  in  their 
several  localities  could  not  do,  rocks  navies, 
transports  rich  merchandise,  and  heaves  its  bles- 
sings upon  a  thousand  shores.  These  Laws  and 
these  institutions  are  false,  and  false  only,  when 
men  undertake  to  perpetuate  them — to  hind 
them  around  the  soul  when  it  has  out-grown 
them — to  invest  them  with  an  abiding  sanctity 
when  the  occasion  for  them  has  passed  away. 
Each  atom  of  good  in  them  shall  live  for  ever, 
but  it  has  passed  into  a  higher  organization. 
Seek  not  now  the  Law  of  the  acorn,  it  has  be- 
come absorbed  in  the  Law  of  the  oak — anon, 
the  law  of  the  oak  has  become  the  law  of  wind 
and  vapor,  of  soil  and  sunshine,  and  these  are 
embraced  in  some  more  comprehensive  princi- 
ple. So  goes  on  the  process  in  the  natural 
world.  We  progress  from  lesser  laws  that  are 
good  in  their  departments,  up  to  some  greater 
Law  that  comprehends  these.  Light  is  one  law 
and  heat  is  another.  The  Philosopher  looks  to 
see  if  both  are  not  effects  of  a  single  cause — 
Electricity,  perhaps,  and  electricity  may  be  the 
effect  of  Magnetism,  or  vice-versa;  and,  by  and 
by,  men  may  come  to  see  that  all  the  multiform 
changes  of  nature  hang  upon  one  single  cause — 
which  cause  is  itself,  what  ?  The  first  manifes- 
tation of  that  Intelligence  who  speaks  and  it  is 


IN    THE    HUMAN    SOUL.  79 

done,  who  commands  and  it  stands  fast.  But 
if  men  ever  arrive  at  such  an  elevation  as  to  dis- 
cover the  great  agent  that  is  the  controlling  law 
of  the  material  universe,  shall  they  say  that  it 
destroys  these  lesser  laws  of  Magnetism,  electri- 
city, light,  heat  ?  Will  it  make  them  false  ? 
No — it  will  confirm  them — it  will  show  their 
highest  relations — it  will  not  destroy,  it  will 
fulfil  them.  Do  you  not  now  understand  how 
it  was,  that  although  Christ  came  to  break  Sym- 
bols and  to  abolish  Rites,  and  to  introduce  a  new 
Dispensation,  he  came  not  to  destroy  but  to 
fulfil  ? 

And  do  you  not  now  see  also  the  point  upon 
which  I  am  laboring — the  Work  of  Christianity 
in  the  human  soul  ? — That  it  aims  to  raise  man 
above  his  dependence  upon  human  laws  and 
outward  institutions,  to  intimate  relationship  with 
God,  and  to  direct  action  from  His  own  Spirit, 
if  I  may  say  so,  indwelling  in  the  soul  1  Human 
Laws  and  outward  Institutions,  I  have  said,  are 
restrictive  and  suggestive — but  they  are  not 
creative.  They  may  prevent  from  doing  wrong, 
they  may  suggest  the  right — but  they  cannot 
create  the  good  disposition  from  which  all  con- 
sistent virtue  emanates,  and  without  which  we 
shall  ever  be  inclined  to  do  wrong,  and  have  but 
fitful  glimpses  of  the  right.  The  existence  of 


80  THE    WORK    OF    CHRISTIANITY 

laws  is  an  evidence  of  human  imperfection.  If 
every  man  was  "  a  law  to  himself,"  after  the 
fashion  of  Christianity,  there  would  be  no  need 
for  legislators  and  enactments.  If  men  had  no  dis- 
position to  murder,  there  would  be  no  need  for 
a  law  concerning  murder.  Laws  are  made  as 
crimes  and  wrongs  appear.  The  promulgation 
of  a  new  edict  is  the  token  of  a  new  manifesta- 
tion of  evil.  The  nation  that  has  occasion  for 
the  least  laws  is  the  most  advanced  in  true  civi- 
lization. A  land  that  should  require  no  prisons 
and  no  magistrates,  would  be  the  happiest  land 
on  the  face  of  the  earth,  because  we  should  find 
there  a  community  whose  members  do  right  for 
righteousness'  sake — whose  acts  not  alone,  but 
whose  disposition  is  to  do  good.  The  reason  why 
we  should  tremble  at  the  removal  of  all  penalties, 
and  the  abolition  of  all  laws,  would  be  because 
we  know  men  have  wrong  dispositions,  and  these 
would  change  the  license  to  anarchy  instead  of 
freedom.  Human  laws,  then,  plainly  mark  the 
existence  of  evil  inclinations  on  the  part  of  men, 
and  the  danger  that  is  apprehended  from  these. 
These  laws,  at  least  directly,  make  no  man  any 
better.  They  are  the  rocky  headlands,  and  the 
careful  breastworks,  that  shield  from  the  fury 
of  the  impetuous  waves — not  the  eternal  lights 
that  stream  long  and  far  over  the  troubled  waters, 


IN    THE    HUMAN    SOU!,.  81 

to  guide  the  wanderer  and  confirm  the  doubting. 
They  appeal  almost  wholly  to  selfish  principles. 
The  good  citizen  is  anxious  for  the  preservation 
of  the  laws,  because  without  them  his  life  and 
his  property  are  insecure — many  a  bad  man  may 
keep  the  laws,  but  it  is  because  if  he  break  them 
he  will  suffer.  So,  I  say,  these  laws  are  good  in 
their  season.  For  one  I  am  far  from  recom- 
mending their  abolition.  However  highly  I  may 
estimate  human  nature  I  am  not  romantic,  and 
whatever  schemes  I  may  indulge  for  human  im- 
provement I  would  not  be  Utopian.  There 
must  be  a  great  work  accomplished  in  the  souls 
of  men  before  we  abolish  all  laws,  but  that  is  a 
work  that  the  laws  can  never  perform.  Until 
the  flame  of  evil  desire  is  quenched  in  the  hu- 
man heart ;  until  the  taint  of  sin,  ages  old,  run- 
ing  deep  and  vital  through  the  springs  of  action 
is  removed,  like  the  leper-spot,  by  the  power  of 
Christ,  there  will  be  crimes  to  punish,  and 
wrongs  to  legislate  for,  the  wide  world  over — in 
every  stage  of  civilization,  and  under  every  form 
of  government.  The  attempt  to  do  away  with 
bloody  penalties  and  harsh  laws  is  only  made  by 
a  community  in  which  is  the  consciousness  that 
men  have  outgrown  them — that  they  do  more 
evil  than  good,  by  encouraging  the  very  spirit 
that  they  should  repress,  and  that  laws  which 
7* 


82  THE    WORK    OF    CHRISTIANITY 

maintain  more  intimate  relations  to  the  springs 
of  crime  and  afford  more  pungent  motives,  are  to 
be  preferred  to  those  the  only  characteristics  of 
which  is  their  severity.  One  of  the  ideas  of  our 
age  is  that  of  moral  suasion,  and  in  its  place  it  is 
a  noble  idea.  But  it  may  also  be  erroneously 
estimated-  It  would  not  do  to  strip  away  all 
penalties,  without  any  regard  to  the  dispositions 
of  men.  There  must  be  an  appeal  made  to 
man's  intellect  and  his  heart,  and  when  these  can 
be  influenced,  then  a  reform  will  be  accomplished 
and  a  check  will  be  given  to  sin,  better  than  all 
enactments  or  rigors  can  secure.  This  I  under- 
stand to  be  the  true  aim  of  Moral  Suasion — to 
influence  the  intellect  and  the  heart — to  appeal 
to  motives  ;  which  it  is  deemed  is  a  far  more  effi- 
cient preventive  of  crime  than  the  mere  blow 
which  is  returned  for  a  blow.  But  with  what 
agencies  shall  moral  suasion  work  upon  the 
heart  ?  I  answer,  with  the  precepts  and  influ- 
ences of  Christianity. 

Thus,  then,  we  are  brought  to  this  funda- 
mental truth,'  that  in  order  to  prevent  crime  and 
evil  action,  we  must  alter  the  dispositions  of 
men ;  that  human  laws  and  penalties  cannot 
reach  these ;  that  the  best  efforts  for  Reform 
aim  at  these,  and  that  moral  suasion  is  efficacious 
only  as  it  controls  the  intellect  and  the  heart. 


IN    THE    HUMAN    SOUL.  S3 

Everywhere  we  turn  for  a  higher  Principle  than 
we  find  in  human  institutions — we  seek  an  Ele- 
ment that  shall  penetrate  the  heart,  that  shall 
control  and  guide  the  disposition.  This  is  the 
great  want  of  society  in  its  aspects  of  crime  and 
shame  and  wrong.  You  may  utter  your  pen- 
alties from  the  Tribunals  of  the  Magistrate  in 
tones  of  thunder,  you  may  soak  scaffolds  with 
human  blood,  you  may  rear  walls  of  impregnable 
granite  that  shall  frown  in  the  very  midst  of 
busy  life,  you  may  plead  for  Peace,  and  Tem- 
perance, and  Chastity — but  until  man's  affec- 
twns  are  altered,  until  his  soul  yields  to  that 
gushing  influence  that  is  the  spirit  of  the  Pre- 
cept "  Love  God  and  man,"  War  will  stalk 
abroad  with  its  havoc,  red-handed  Murder  will 
seek  its  victims  at  noon-day,  Inebriety  will 
stagger  through  the  crowded  streets,  and  impu- 
dent Sin  will  open  its  doors  in  the  very  face  of 
virtue. 

You  boast  of  your  Reforms — but  sound  not 
your  trumpet  of  victory  too  soon.  There  is  a 
mightier  work  to  be  accomplished  than  that 
which  binds  men  together  in  associations,  or 
makes  them  enthusiastic  in  great  causes  and 
pledges  them  to  its  support.  Associations  per- 
form a  good  office.  They  awaken  men  from 
selfishness,  draw  them  together  by  revealing  the 


84  THE    WORK    OF    CHRISTIANITY 

common  bond  of  humanity,  and  in  their  great 
agitation  of  sympathies  reveal  the  practical  phases 
of  the  doctrine  of  human  brotherhood.  But  they 
do  not  occupy  the  highest  point  in  true  civiliza- 
tion. They  are  but  the  medium  ground  that 
leads  to  better  things.  They  aim — every  asso- 
ciation that  has  a  true  idea  aims — to  produce  a 
free  and  a  safe  individualism;  to  make  each  mem- 
ber of  the  human  family  feel  that  he  is  a  maw, 
and  to  know  what  depends  upon  that  fact,  the 
responsibility  that  hangs  upon  it,  the  dignity 
that  belongs  to  it,  the  Great  Law  above  all  laws, 
the  law  of  our  spiritual  being,  that  is  to  be  obeyed. 
You  should  wish  to  make  the  drunkard  a  sober 
man,  not  because  his  neighbor  is  sober,  not  be- 
cause it  is  popular  to  be  sober,  but  because  it  is 
right — because  that  law  of  right  is  binding  upon 
him,  individually — because  he  is  bound  to  be 
sober,  if  all  men  beside  were  reeling  with  their 
wine-cups  to  destruction.  So  with  all  Reforms. 
Their  true  end  is  accomplished  only  when  they 
make  each  man  feel  his  individual  responsibility 
— feel  that  for  and  from  himself  alone  he  is  to 
stand  or  fall — feel  that  there  is  a  Great  Law 
which  he,  he  is  always  and  everywhere  bound 
to  obey,  let  the  world  move  as  it  will,  because 
he  is  a  man.  This,  I  say,  is  the  true  end  of 
Reforms ;  and  it  is  to  be  feared  that  in  the  pro- 


IN    THE    HUMAN    SOUL.  85 

minence  which  we  give  to  the  principle  of  Asso- 
ciation, we  lose  sight  of  it,  or  under-estimate  it. 
I  say,  then,  we  must  not  rest  upon  our  armor, 
furl  our  standards,  and  sound  our  clarion  of  tri- 
umph, until  men  are  not  only  reformed  outwardly 
but  inwardly — not  as  masses  but  as  individuals. 
And,  therefore,  there  is  yet  a  great  work  to  do. 
Oh  !  strip  off  the  veil  that  the  sunny  light  of  day 
and  the  decencies  of  society  cast  upon  human 
life.  Look  in  upon  its  million  beating  hearts. 
Read  the  corrupt  desire  that  lurks  below  the 
smooth  address.  See  the  smouldering  flame  of 
passion  whose  outward  manifestation  is  covered 
by  a  smile.  Go  behind  the  masked  faces  that 
crowd  the  public  streets,  and  see  the  hideous 
thoughts  that  creep  and  nestle  there  all  un- 
checked. See  the  ferocious  hate,  the  salacious 
wish,  the  selfish  narrowness,  the  unyielding 
pride,  that  flit  like  dark  spectres  across,  or  fan 
with  untiring  wings  their  embers  in  the  soul. 
Here,  oh  !  Legislator,  are  the  sources  of  crime — 
can  thy  nicely-adjusted  Law  that  decrees  so  much 
penalty  for  so  much  overt  action,  reach  these,  the 
main-springs  of  it  all  ?  Here,  oh  !  Reformer,  is 
the  life  of  the  evils  at  which  thou  art  aiming.  This 
painted  mask  of  Folly,  this  ancient  custom  of 
Sin,  this  shameless  harlotry  of  Vice,  thou  mayest 
repress  to-day ;  but  to-morrow  they  will  be  all 


86  THE    WORK    OF    CHRISTIANITY 

abroad  again,  in  some  new  shape,  under  some 
trickery  of  human  wit,  some  garment  of  moral 
sanctity  perhaps — but  they  will  be  all  abroad, 
because  the  heart  will  throw  out  its  tenants. 
Could  you  drain  the  sea  ?  From  its  thousand 
brine-springs,  from  its  arteries  that  reach  to  the 
heart  of  great  mountains,  from  its  gurgling  caves, 
that  pierce  to  the  centre  of  the  earth,  a  new  ocean 
would  ever  rush  unconquered  and  inexhaustible. 
But  if  sin  thus  lurks  everywhere  around  us, 
what  shall  we  say  of  that  dark  mass,  that  in 
dens  and  cellars,  in  peopled  cities,  lies  matted 
together,  steeped  in  vice  and  loathsome  with 
crime  ?  They  were  cradled  in  sin.  They  have 
always  breathed  tainted  air.  What  light  has 
reached  them,  has  come  dim  and  straggling 
through  the  murky  atmosphere  of  their  being, 
and  this  has  been  almost  wholly  quenched  by 
the  necessities  of  poverty,  the  hardening  influ- 
ences of  association  and  example,  and  the  excesses 
of  gross  and  bestial  sensuality.  Thousands,  mil- 
lions are  there  in  this  condition,  seething  toge- 
ther in  sin,  brooding  over  dark  and  fearful 
thoughts,  feeding  on  the  very  offal  of  wickedness, 
clothed  in  the  very  rags  of  moral  destitution. 
And  what  a  vast  work  is  to  be  accomplished  in 
them  !  When  you  have  made  your  rules  con- 
cerning pauperism,  and  decreed  your  laws  against 


IN    THE    HUMAN    SOUL.  87 

crime,  and  organized  your  societies  for  the  sup- 
pression of  vice,  your  power  to  affect  this  mass 
has  not  reached  skin-deep,  unless  you  have  in- 
troduced elements  that  shall  penetrate  to  the 
Will,  and  that  shall  elevate  and  guide  the  Affec- 
tions. Ere  the  true  work  is  accomplished,  each 
one  of  that  enormous  multitude  is  to  be  raised  to 
a  consciousness  of  his  responsibility,  to  a  sense  of 
his  dignity.  In  that  furnace  of  all  vile  passions 
that  burns  with  a  roaring  flame  in  his  heart,  is 
to  be  kindled  the  fire  of  love  and  of  devotion. 
His  whole  moral  atmosphere  is  to  be  renovated. 
He  who  in  his  pursuit  of  evil  hardly  pauses  for 
the  barred  dungeon,  or  the  fearful  gallows,  is  to 
be  raised  to  such  a  height  that  if  there  were  not 
a  prison,  or  a  gibbet,  or  a  law  in  the  land,  he 
would  not  commit  a  wrong  any  more  than  he 
would  cut  off  his  right  hand,  pluck  out  his  right 
eye,  or  take  for  his  drink  a  draught  of  burning 
coals. 

Here  then,  in  this  mysterious  nature  within 
us,  upon  the  throne  of  this  Will,  in  the  home  of 
these  Affections,  is  to  be  the  great  reformation. 
Without  that,  all  laws,  all  associations,  are  futile 
and  shallow.  When  we  look  thus  deeply  into 
the  human  heart,  into  this  tossing  sea  of  passions, 
these  clamorous  interests,  these  stormy, unbridled 
lusts — how  insignificant  do  our  prison-walls  seem, 


88  THE    WORK    OF    CHRISTIANITY 

how  impotent  our  "  act  to  amend  an  act  entitled 
an  act !"  As  though  by  cunning  shifting,  and 
adjustment  to  every  new  sin,  we  thereby  pre- 
vented sin  !  Why  our  very  laws  themselves, 
how  are  they  abused  ! — made  a  cloak  for  the 
very  iniquity  they  were  meant  to  crush — made 
a  dagger  for  the  very  innocence  they  were  or- 
dained to  shield.  Under  the  sanction  of  the  law, 
Fraud  plays  its  juggling  tricks — under  the  sanc- 
tion of  the  law,  wealth  tramples  upon  honest 
poverty — under  the  sanction  of  the  law  impu- 
dent libertinism  ruins  unprotected  virtue,  and 
crime  goes  unpunished,  and  innocence  suffers. 
And  until  we  rise  to  that  Law  that  is  above  all 
laws,  when  men  shall  do  right  for  righteousness' 
sake,  and  love  the  Good  for  itself  alone — when 
at  midnight,  or  in  the  desert,  or  on  the  lonely 
sea,  he  will  deal  fairly  with  his  brother  from 
pure  motives,  and  live  a  virtuous  life  from  the 
dictates  of  a  virtuous  heart ;  until  a  revolution 
like  this  takes  place,  I  say,  we  must  expect  to 
find  transgression  and  evil  in  the  world.  The 
Will  and  the  Affections,  what  shall  control  these  ? 
The  human  WILL,  headlong  and  irresistible — it 
has  broken  down  barriers  of  eternal  rock,  and 
swept  over  deserts  of  frozen  ice,  and  bridged 
torrents,  and  felled  forests ;  and  what  it  is  in  the 
material  world,  it  is  in  the  moral,  a  principle 


IN    THE    HUMAN    SOUL.  89 

that  halts  at  no  obstacle  and  that  moves  in  all 
things  as  the  inner  impulse  dictates.  The  human 
AFFECTIONS,  strong  and  unquenchable,  how 
will  they  cling  to  whatever  they  cherish  !  If 
they  worship  Mammon,  what  danger  shall  deter 
them — what  wide  sea  or  dreary  waste  shall  pre- 
vent— nay,  at  what  crime  will  they  revolt  ?  If 
they  seek  for  Fame,  who  shall  stand  between 
them  and  it  ?  What  height  so  dizzy  that  they 
will  turn  back — what  gulf  so  deep  that  they  will 
shrink  ?  If  their  hunt  is  for  Pleasure,  they  care 
not  for  all  its  stings.  They  will  drain  the  wine- 
cup  though  its  drops  are  molten  fire  ;  and  even 
when  they  see  the  ruin  approaching  and  hear 
the  hoarse  murmurs  of  the  storm,  they  will  sacri- 
fice all  to  the  bliss  of  the  moment  and  recklessly 
melt  into  the  charmed  delusion. 

I  have  thus  endeavored  to  unfold  to  you  the 
Great  Work  that  is  to  be  performed,  ere  that  at 
which  the  laws  aim,  and  which  Reformers  seek 
for  is  accomplished — the  abolition  of  wrong  and 
sin  from  human  society.  I  have  endeavored  to 
unveil,  to  some  extent,  the  human  soul  as  its 
circumstances  actually  are  at  this  moment,  all 
around  and  within  us,  among  high  and  low,  rich 
and  poor;  and  have  shown  you  the  fearful 
sources  of  iniquity  lying  in  the  main-springs  of 
all  action — the  Affections  and  the  Will. 
8 


90  THE    WORK    OF    CHRISTIANITY 

And  now,  I  ask,  if  that  System  which  should 
come  into  the  world,  having  for  one  of  its  objects 
the  elevation  of  the  soul  to  such  a  degree  of 
goodness  and  moral  strength,  as  to  destroy  the 
will  and  the  disposition  to  sin,  I  ask  if  that  Sys- 
tem is  not  worthy  of  being  heralded  by  Angels 
— of  being  announced  in  a  Chorus  of  Glory  to 
God  in  the  Highest,  of  Peace  and  Good-Will  to 
men  ?  Yes,  Glory  to  God  in  the  Highest ! 
Glory  to  Him  in  the  Great  Design,  and  the  Tri- 
umphant Means  of  accomplishing  such  a  work  ! 
Glory  to  Him  that  must  result  from  the  consum- 
mation of  manhood  purified  from  its  sins,  ele- 
vated above  its  sensuality,  living  the  true  and 
Divine  life  !  And  on  earth,  Peace  to  men  ! 
Peace  after  the  stormy  warfare  of  passion  and 
guilt.  Peace  by  the  old  shrines  of  martyrdom 
and  on  the  fields  of  ancient  battle.  Peace  in 
the  haunts  of  secret  crime,  and  the  homes  of 
shameless  transgression.  Peace  where  clanked 
the  prisoner's  chain,  and  where  groaned  the 
doomsman's  axe.  Peace  where  rose  the  sobs  of 
injured  innocence  and  the  pleadings  of  trampled, 
bleeding  humanity.  Peace  in  the  individual 
soul,  where  all  is  in  harmony  with  God,  and 
where  the  end  of  human  laws  and  outward  insti- 
tutions is  not  destroyed  but  fulfilled — fulfilled  in 
the  highest  and  the  deepest  sense. 


IN    THE    HUMAN    SOUL.  91 

And  such  a  work,  I  say,  Christianity  came  to 
accomplish.  Here  lies  an  explanation  of  its  glo- 
rious Prophecies  and  its  blessed  anticipations. 
In  this  consummation  shall  the  valley  be  exalted 
and  the  mountain  be  brought  low.  In  this  shall 
the  lamb  lie  down  with  the  lion,  and  the  leopard 
with  the  kid.  In  this  shall  the  wilderness  and 
the  solitary  place  be  glad,  and  the  desert  bud 
and  blossom  as  the  rose. 

Christianity  is  not  anarchy — is  not  opposed  to 
human  institutions ;  it  is  above  them,  the  great 
Fountain  from  which  they  derive  their  sanctity 
and  their  vigor.  It  does  not  aim,  with  rash  hand, 
to  abolish  all  human  laws  at  once.  To  do  this 
would  be  commencing  with  the  outward  and 
proceeding  to  the  imcard.  But  as  long  as  the 
inward  is  wrong,  the  outward  will  be  needed  as 
a  support  and  a  protection.  To  strip  away  the 
outward  first,  then,  would  be  to  leave  society 
and  man  exposed  to  all  the  violence  of  unbridled 
passion  and  fearless  sin.  But  Christianity  com- 
mences with  the  inward.  It  lays  the  deepest 
stress  upon  the  regulation  of  every  motive.  It 
says  a  man  that  hates  his  brother  is  tainted  with 
murder,  and  he  who  offends  in  one  point  of  law  is 
guilty  of  all.  And  when  it  has  moulded  the 
disposition,  and  renovated  the  heart  and  infused 
into  it  its  spirit,  then  the  outward  law  will  not 


92  THE    WORK    OF    CHRISTIANITY 

be  destroyed,  but  it  will  melt  away  of  itself — 
the  necessity  for  it  will  be  gone,  its  end  will  be 
reached,  it  will  not  be  destroyed,  it  will  be  ful- 
filled. So  long  as  there  is  need  for  the  law, 
then,  maintain  the  law  ;  but  remember  this — 
whenever  there  is  such  need,  there  is  also  needed 
something  else.  Christianity  is  needed — the 
right  affections,  the  good  Will  are  needed.  He 
is  needed,  who  when  he  comes,  comes  to  elevate 
man  above  the  necessity  for  outward  laws — comes 
not  to  bring  anarchy  but  freedom,  not  violence 
but  love — comes  not  to  destroy  but  to  fulfil. 

My  friends,  it  is  but  lately  that  we  celebrated 
the  anniversary  of  the  Advent  of  Christ  and 
Christianity.  And  it  seemed  peculiarly  appro- 
priate that  the  commemoration  of  that  Event 
should  fall,  as  it  did,  upon  the  Sabbath  !  Christ- 
mas upon  the  Sabbath  !  Thus  the  memorial  of 
Christ's  Birth  was  blended  with  the  Associations 
of  his  Death.  On  that  day,  the  Angels  who  sat 
by  his  Tomb,  were  in  the  company  of  those  who 
proclaimed  his  Advent.  Through  the  flash  of 
his  Resurrection  morning  shone  the  star  that  hung 
over  his  Manger.  The  Annunciation  "  Unto  us 
is  born  a  Prince  and  a  Savior,"  mingled  with 
the  triumphant  Anthem,  "  He  is  risen." 

But  now  what  is  this  Christmas  that  we  cele- 
brate ?  Is  it  an  historical  Advent  merely  that  it 


IN    THE    HUMAN    SOUL.  93 

proclaims,  or  is  it  an  experimental  Advent  also? 
Is  it  confined  to  a  peculiar  day  and  season  of  the 
year,  or  is  it  for  all  souls,  at  all  seasons  ?  "  I 
travail  in  birth  again,"  said  the  Apostle  Paul, 
"  Until  Christ  be  formed  in  you."  What  a  depth 
of  meaning  is  here  !  This  is  the  true  Advent  of 
Christ.  Oh  !  to  every  soul  is  it  Christmas  morn- 
ing when  Christ  is  thus  formed  within  it — when 
his  spirit  enters  as  its  Teacher  and  Guide.  Then 
a  chorus  of  Angels  is  heard.  Then  light  breaks 
in  like  that  which  hung  over  Euphrata.  Then 
all  that  is  good  in  human  laws  and  outward  insti- 
tutions is  fulfilled,  for  we  become  a  law  unto 
ourselves. 

Hearer,  this  is  an  individual  work — back  of 
the  renovation  of  society  lies  the  renovation  of 
individuals.  It  is  a  work  of  high  and  solemn, 
the  highest,  the  most  solemn  responsibility.  Let 
each  one  give  heed  to  it ! 

8* 


DISCOURSE   IV. 

THE  MISSION  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

Preached  in  Brooklyn,  L.  I.,  January  17th,  1843. 

Speaking  the  truth  in  love 

EPHESIANS  iv.  15. 

HERE  we  have  the  matter  and  the  manner  ot 
the  Gospel,  the  letter  and  the  spirit.  This  is 
the  great  element  of  hope  for  man ;  upon  this 
Principle — "  The  Truth  spoken  in  Love,"  de- 
pend the  progress  and  the  regeneration  of  the 
race.  What  a  sublime  and  beautiful  apposition  ! 
TRUTH  and  LOVE.  Shrouded  in  murky  shadows, 
or  resting  beneath  the  uncertain  and  tremulous 
midnight,  or  waking  from  its  fitful  slumbers  to 
catch  the  gray  glimpses  of  the  morning,  the 
world  has  long  waited  for  these  two  orbs  of  light 
and  power.  Lo  !  yonder  they  rise  together  in 
the  Constellation  of  the  Cross. 

The  world,  my  friends,  is  full  of  falsehoods. 
You  will  understand — not  merely  deceits  of  the 
tongue,  not  only  acts  of  purposed  and  barefaced 
deception,  but  frauds  that  lie  deeper  than  these, 


THE    MISSION    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  95 

and  appear  in  more  varied  manifestations.  In 
the  customs,  the  laws,  the  polity,  the  religion  of 
the  world,  in  social  and  individual  elements,  in 
doctrines  and  practices,  in  hopes  and  pleasures, 
in  a  thousand  familiar  and  novel  things,  there 
lurk  falsehoods.  Whatever  deludes  and  cheats 
men,  whatever  human  error,  or  passion,  or  sin 
has  built  up  and  established  in  the  place  of  truth, 
is  a  falsehood.  The  desire  that  you  will  often 
see  a  man  hugging  to  his  bosom,  cherishing 
through  sunshine  and  storm,  sacrificing  honor 
and  health  and  virtue  for  it,  that  desire,  I  say, 
although  he  may  not  think  so,  is  a  falsehood — it 
would  be  better  for  him  that  he  were  halt  and 
maimed  without  it,  for  only  without  it  can  he 
enter  into  life — it  would  be  better  for  him  if  it 
were  plucked  up  by  the  roots,  although  his  very 
heart-strings  have  grown  around  it.  The  white- 
faced  sanctimoniousness  that  often  passes  you  in 
the  streets,  that  has  so  many  Religious  icords 
and  so  few  Religious  deeds,  that  "  with  one  hand 
puts  a  penny  in  the  purse  of  chanty,  and  with 
the  other  takes  a  shilling  out,"  that  smooth  and 
decent  thing  is  a  living  lie,  and,  if  it  were  a  day 
of  revelation,  would  have  "  falsehood"  written  on 
its  frontlet,  and  on  the  borders  of  its  garments, 
and  on  its  broad  phylacteries.  The  fashionable 
round  of  life — the  gilding  of  society — with  its 


96  THE    MISSION    OF     CHRISTIANITY. 

polished  and  adamantine  etiquette,  its  gauzy 
virtue,  its  respectable  moralities,  its  hollow  pro- 
fessions of  friendship,  its  ghastly  smiles  of  wel- 
come, what  is  it  when  you  strip  off  its  rind — 
when  you  lay  bare  its  reality  ?  Deep  in  the 
dust  and  ashes  of  its  hollow  heart  lies  the  black 
core  of  falsehood.  The  Charity  of  men  of  the 
world,  your  donors  whose  names  are  printed  in 
newspaper  lists,  whose  gifts  shine  and  sparkle 
to  the  world  that  the  left  hand  may  know  what 
the  right  hand  doeth — what  is  this  ?  In  that 
wan  face  which  pleads  in  vain  beneath  the  pelting 
storm  for  a  miserable  pittance — in  that  neglected 
benefactor  of  other  days,  who  sits  amid  the  deso- 
late memories  of  ingratitude,  sick  and  poor — in 
that  pleading  debtor  who  looks  in  vain  to  that 
inexorable  brow — in  the  hire  of  the  laborers  who 
have  reaped  down  his  fields,  and  whose  wages 
are  of  him  kept  back  by  fraud ;  in  all  these 
aspects  I  read  the  utter  baseness  of  his  Charity, 
and  know  that  his  assumed  benevolence  is  false- 
hood. 

But  these  may  seem  matters  of  secondary  im- 
portance. I  mention  them,  however,  in  order 
that  you  may  see  with  what  a  complexity  of  de- 
ception your  ordinary  life,  your  daily  walks,  are 
surrounded.  Strike  what  to  your  eyes  may  seem 
most  fair  out  in  this  busy  mart  of  humanity,  it 


THE    MISSION    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  97 

is  quite  likely  that  it  will  ring  hollow  to  the 
blow — press  it  somewhat  hard,  and  it  may  crum- 
ble to  ashes.  "  The  whole  creation  groaneth 
and  travaileth  together  until  now."  Why  is  it 
so  ?  It  is  a  fair,  nay,  it  is  a  most  beautiful 
world.  There  is  no  nook  so  covered  with  Lap- 
land ice,  there  is  no  waste  so  desolate  with  drift- 
ing sand,  that  it  will  not  reveal  to  the  curious 
eye  some  trait  of  Beneficence,  some  delightful 
arrangement  of  Wisdom.  From  the  sheeted 
cataract  to  the  drop  of  dew,  from  the  cloud  that 
melts  in  a  breath  of  air  to  the  mountain  that  is 
wet  with  the  baptism  of  a  million  rains,  through 
every  order  and  every  part,  we  are  constrained 
to  say — "  it  is  indeed  a  beautiful  world."  And 
who  seems  more  fitted  to  enjoy  all  this  than  man 
— this  creature  of  godlike  mould  and  cunning 
workmanship,  this  being  of  mighty  thoughts  and 
all-embracing  sympathies,  this  living  soul  of  ex- 
haustless  powers  and  infinite  aspirations  ?  And 
yet  of  all  beings,  who  so  unhappy,  who  so  short 
as  he  ?  It  is  not  the  rock  that  really  travails,  it 
is  not  the  river  that  groans,  it  is  not  the  beast  of 
the  field  that  sighs  under  this  bondage  of  corrup- 
tion. That  cry  of  wo  comes  from  man — it  bursts 
from  his  troubled,  laboring  heart — and  if  to  him 
the  outer  world  moans  and  struggles  it  only  does 
so  in  seeming ;  he  interprets  its  dumb  and  me- 


98  THE    MISSION    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

chanical  agencies  by  his  own  intense  sufferings. 
But  now  what  is  the  cause  of  this  awful  and 
sometimes  almost  doubtful  conflict  ?  I  answer, 
man  is  bowed  down  and  crushed  and  penetrated 
by  falsehoods !  These  have  left  their  scars 
wherever  he  has  trodden — they  rise  up  in  moun- 
tain-masses between  him  and  the  sun. 

Yes,  my  friends,  these  wars,  these  tyrannies, 
these  superstitions,  these  frauds  and  murders, 
this  abuse  of  the  image  of  God  by  man,  these 
hatreds  and  strivings  and  deeds  of  silence  are  all 
falsehoods ;  and  men  are  deluded,  crushed,  bowed 
down  with  links  of  iron  by  crimes  and  sins  that 
are  ages  old,  hoary,  yet  strong  and  cruel.  Thus 
is  it  with  the  individual,  thus  is  it  with  the  race 
— thus  does  it  appear  to  him  who  looks  around 
him  with  a  scrutinizing  eye,  or  abroad  upon  the 
wide  world  of  humanity. 

But  must  this  always  be  so  ?  Something  is 
needed  to  make  man  happy — something  to  give 
him  deliverance,  and  perfection,  and  life.  If  we 
have  a  Father,  if  He  cares  for  us,  we  may  be 
sure  that  He  has  given  or  that  He  will  give  the 
means  for  this  deliverance  and  perfection  and 
life.  Hearer,  He  has  given  it — He  has  given 
the  Truth.  Man  is  surrounded  with  falsehoods 
— this  is  one  view  of  things,  it  is  the  view  which 
we  have  been  taking.  But  it  is,  so  far,  only  a 


THE    MISSION    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  99 

partial  view.  We  must  look  upon  the  economy 
of  things  in  another  and  a  more  cheering  aspect. 
It  has  been  said,  that  near  the  spot  where  the 
deadly  serpent  lurks  is  found  the  herb  that  cures 
his  bite.  Is  it  not  so  in  every  scale  of  events  ?  Is 
there  not  an  antidote  for  the  bane — does  not  light 
lie  around  the  darkness — where  sin  abounded 
does  not  Grace  superabound  ?  The  world  is  full 
of  falsehood,  is  it  not  also  full  of  Truth  ?  If  man 
is  weak  enough  to  be  entangled  by  the  one,  is 
he  not  strong  enough  to  lay  hold  of  and  to  wield 
the  other  ?  Yes,  it  is  even  so.  Nothing  is 
hopelessly  lost.  Through  various  phases,  as  the 
race  needs,  appears  the  Truth ;  it  is  mightier  than 
the  falsehood, it  shall  prevail.  Upon  the  degraded 
brow  of  ignorance  falls  the  light  of  knowledge, 
through  the  ranks  of  enslaved  nations  and  over 
their  thrones  of  despotism,  strides  young  and 
victorious  liberty,  and  far  above  this  error-bound 
and  sinful  world,  far  above  its  scepticism,  and  its 
tears,  rise  Calvary  and  the  Cross,  and  hard  by  it 
is  the  Tomb  in  the  rock — the  gateway  of  the 
future  and  the  immortal. 

The  Principle,  then,  which  shall  deliver  us  is 
Truth,  and  it  has  been  given  us.  It  is  revealed 
in  nature.  Whatever  is  wrong  in  society  or  in 
individual  action  is  artificial — is  produced  by 
man — is  not  established  in  the  natural  economy 


100  THE    MISSION    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

of  things.  The  laws  of  nature  can  not  be  abolish- 
ed. If  there  were  a  wrong,  then,  incorporated 
into  these  laws — if  there  were  a  falsehood  woven 
into  this  unceasing  mechanism,  how  sad  would 
it  be  for  us  !  But,  as  we  penetrate  to  these 
laws — as  we  strip  off  the  veils  that  have  hidden 
its  rare  secrets  from  our  ignorance  and  our  error,, 
as  we  come  into  communion  with  its  intimate 
life,  we  find  nothing  that  is  wrong,  nothing  that 
is  hurtful  in  nature,  nothing  but  evinces  the 
operation  of  a  Power  working  with  tissues  of 
light  and  darkness,  in  the  womb  of  the  earth  and 
abroad  through  the  everlasting  heavens,  for  the 
best  ends.  And  when  man  does  wrong,  when 
he  sins  against  his  capacity,  when  he  falsifies  hi& 
destiny,  nature  rebukes  him — and  beautiful  les- 
sons she  reads  to  him  from  the  waters,  the  earth 
and  the  stars.  Yes  the  truth  is  revealed  in 
nature.  But  the  difficulty  is  that  we  are  too 
dim-eyed  to  read  all  its  Scripture — we  are  a  pro- 
gressive race  and  can  know  but  part  at  a  time, 
and  we  need  some  higher  Revelation. 

But  we  are  not  left  to  nature.  The  truth  is 
revealed  in  reason  and  in  conscience.  There  is 
in  man  an  intuitive  power.  Nature  is  not  to 
him  what  it  is  to  the  beast.  It  is  not  a  broad 
meadow  to  graze  in,  a  collection  of  hills  and  val- 
leys to  skip  upon ;  indeed  over  its  elements  he 


THE    MISSION    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  101 

has  not  so  much  dominion  as  the  mere  animal. 
He  can  not  cleave  its  air  like  the  soaring  bird 
or  breast  its  waters  like  the  fish.  And  yet,  to 
him,  nature  has  a  use  that  it  has  not  to  the  eagle 
and  the  lion.  It  speaks  to  something  in  him  of 
something  beyond  it.  He  recognizes  in  himself 
a  sympathy  with  that  which  produced  the  order, 
and  beauty,  and  power  of  nature — with  that  of 
which  these  are  only  the  manifestations.  He 
acknowledges  intuitively,  I  say,  a  Power  above 
nature,  from  which  all  right  and  good  and  true 
creations  emanate — a  Power  that  is  Goodness 
and  Righteousness  and  Truth.  And  the  same 
intuitive  faculty  discerns  the  Right,  the  Good 
and  the  True  when  they  are  presented  to  it, 
amid  all  the  falsehoods  with  which  we  are  en- 
girdled. And  man  has  in  him,  moreover,  a  power 
which  speaks  out  for  right  and  against  wrong. 
When  he  has  violated  an  obligation,  when  he 
has  sinned  against  a  lawful  requirement,  when 
he  has  turned  his  back  upon  the  light  that  he 
might  do  a  deed  of  darkness,  there  has  spoken 
"  a  still,  small  voice"  in  the  depth  of  his  soul 
with  a  power  more  awful  than  thunder.  It  is  so 
the  wide  world  over.  It  is  woven  into  man's 
spiritual  constitution.  Without  it  he  would  cease 
to  be  man — more  than  if  he  was  deprived  of  his 
upright  position,  or  his  eyes,  or  his  hands.  And 
9 


102  THE    MISSION    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

in  these  two  elements  of  Reason  and  Conscience, 
I  say,  the  Truth  is  revealed. 

But  Reason  and  Conscience  have  not  been 
found  sufficient  teachers  of  the  Truth.  They 
have  either  not  taught  all  the  Truth  that  man 
needs,  or  else  have  not  had  power  to  impress 
him  with  all  they  taught.  A  higher  Revelation 
has  been  given.  It  came  with  the  direct  Sanc- 
tion of  Heaven,  to  the  world-wide  humanity. 
It  came  from  a  region  beyond  this  rigid  materi- 
ality— it  came  from  beyond  earth  and  the  tomb. 
It  came  not  in  thunder,  nor  in  waves  of  red 
lightning  from  the  mountain-cloud.  The  earth- 
quake did  not  cradle  it — it  was  not  born  in  the 
whirlwind.  It  came  not  in  parchment  laws,  nor 
in  an  ordered  priesthood.  It  is  true,  Angels 
heralded  its  birth — but  their  song  was  sweet 
and  kind,  such  as  the  desolate  rejoice  to  hear, 
such  as  the  mourner  listens  to  with  gladness. 
Angels  heralded  its  Birth — but  its  Birth  itself 
was  no  gorgeous  event.  That  Truth  eame  not 
in  a  Voice,  not  in  an  Institution,  but  in  a  LIFE 
— a  meek  and  lowly  LIFE.  The  World  hardly 
looked  for  this,  the  old,  falsehood-bound  World, 
swathed  around  with  superstition,  leaning  upon 
its  sword,  scarred  by  its  vengeful  conflicts,  giv- 
ing ever  and  anon  a  hollow  laugh  of  scepticism 
as  to  all  faith  and  all  virtue,  and  then  moaning 


THE    MISSION    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  103 

like  a  very  woman  over  the  mystery  of  the  dead 
— the  World,  under  whose  power  men  were 
bound,  hardly  expected  to  find  the  Truth  in  this 
shape,  in  the  Life  of  an  humble,  coarse-clad  Man, 
proclaiming  doctrines  that  rebuked  alike  the 
oppressions  of  the  tyrant  and  the  superstition  of 
the  Slave — that  below  the  purple  robe  of  the 
Monarch  and  the  ragged  tunic  of  the  beggar, 
laid  bare  the  same  precious  soul,  that  amid  the 
clangor  of  revenge  and  hate  breathed  his  Pre- 
cepts of  Mercy  and  Peace,  and  called  upon  all 
men  as  wanderers,  as  prodigals,  as  seekers  of  the 
vile  and  the  transitory,  to  return  home  to  their 
Father's  house.  Yes,  my  friends,  the  Truth 
that  we  need  to  deliver  us  from  the  thraldom  of 
so  many  falsehoods,  has  been  revealed  in  a  sin- 
gle Life.  It  came  to  the  world  and  the  world 
knew  it  not.  When  men  were  looking  for  a 
Deliverer,  it  came  to  deliver,  but  not  with  sword 
and  banner.  It  robed  itself  with  no  purple  ma- 
jesty, it  took  no  high  seat  in  the  synagogue. 
But  it  went  out  among  the  lowly  and  the  poor, 
it  mingled'  with  fishermen  and  publicans.  It 
brought  no  forms,  it  set  up  no  complicated  ordi- 
nances. It  made  the  green  heath  a  shrine  as 
holy  as  the  decorated  temple,  and  the  broken 
prayer  of  the  penitent  heart  a  richer  offering 
than  gold  or  spices.  It  made  no  distinction  be- 


104  THE    MISSION    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

tween  men  save  that  of  goodness,  it  set  no  value 
on  any  thing  that  man  possessed  except  his  soul. 
In  place  of  earthly  riches,  it  opened  to  the  race 
a  treasure  beyond  the  skies — in  place  of  earthly 
triumphs,  it  led  the  way  to  a  heavenly  victory. 
It  wrote  no  huge  volumes,  it  framed  no  specific 
laws.  Justice,  Humility,  Mercy,  Truth,  Love, 
Meekness,  and  kindred  virtues,  it  patiently 
taught  these  to  the  world — sowed  them,  precious 
seed,  in  the  few  hearts  that  would  receive,  and 
calmly  went  its  way,  its  way  of  toil  and  suffer- 
ing and  death.  Few  and  faint  were  the  gleams 
of  light  that  broke  upon  that  LIFE — full  of  sor- 
rows was  it,  smitten  and  afflicted.  The  poor 
gathered  around  it  and  blessed  it — the  suffering 
uttered  broken  hosannas  in  its  path.  But  few 
plaudits  went  after  it,  no  trains  of  splendid 
triumph  followed  it.  Darkness  closed  around 
its  latter  days.  In  rapid  succession  came  trials 
upon  it.  Friendless  was  the  man  who  was  the 
friend  of  all  men.  Thorned  was  the  brow  that 
was  ever  lighted  with  benignity  and  love.  The 
hands  that  were  always  open  for  the  doing  of 
good  were  pierced  with  cruel  torture  ;  and  the 
lips  that  could  quiver  in  their  last  agony  with 
Forgivenesss,  quivered  with  the  death  of  the 
Cross.  And  so  he  lived,  and  so  he  died.  True, 
a  sublime  triumph  followed — but  few  saw  it. 


THE    MISSION   OP    CHRISTIANITV.  105 

It  was  made  no  occasion  of  display,  no  source  of 
sudden  wonder  that  should  convert  the  world 
with  a  stroke.  The  rock-bound  Tomb  burst  open, 
and  he  arose  with  Death's  pale  garland  in  his 
triumphant  hand.  But  it  was  only  revealed  to 
a  few.  As  he  had  lived  above  the  time,  calmly 
trusting  not  to  terror,  not  to  force,  not  to  excite- 
ment— but  to  simple  Truth,  to  do  the  work  he 
wished,  so  he  rose.  He  left  it  for  ignorant  fish- 
ermen and  rude  peasants  to  proclaim  it  to  the 
world,  and  went  to  the  home  from  whence  that 
Truth  came. 

So,  my  friends,  that  Life  was  not  like  that 
which  so  many  have  honored.  It  was  not  the 
life  of  a  Warrior,  quivering  through  blood  and 
flame.  It  was  not  the  life  of  a  Philosopher, 
starry  with  intellect.  It  was  not  the  Life  of  a 
Law-Giver,  enrolled  in  the  polity  of  nations. 
And  yet,  no  Life  has  had  such  an  influence  upon 
the  world  as  that  Life — no  Life  ever  shall.  It 
has  been  the  source  of  life  to  others.  It  has 
gone  through  dark  ages  of  the  world's  history, 
tempering  the  passions  of  men  with  its  spirit  of 
meekness,  and  guiding  the  erring  with  its  hand 
of  pity.  And  in  the  darkest  hour,  when  its  very 
name  has  been  used  to  cover  monstrous  perver- 
sion and  abominable  sin,  it  has  shone,  the  only 
light  the  world  had.  In  the  bosom  of  a  perse- 
9* 


106  THE    MISSION    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

cuting  Church,  it  has  still  asserted  its  great  Doc- 
trine of  human  Brotherhood.  In  the  midst  of 
licentiousness  and  sensuality,  it  has  made  its 
themes  the  highest  ideals  of  the  artist.  And 
when  all  around  seemed  hemmed  in  Avith  im- 
passable barriers  and  gloomy  shadows,  one  bright 
spot  has  opened  like  an  avenue  to  fairer  hopes — 
an  avenue  through  the  Tomb  whence  he  ascend- 
ed. That  Life,  that  Life  of  Christ!  It  has 
achieved  unspeakable  victories-^-victories  which 
mailed  hand  and  armed  host  never  could  have 
accomplished.  It  overturned  the  marble  gods 
of  Greece.  It  plucked  dominion  from  the  throne 
of  the  Caesars.  It  tamed  the  rude  barbarian,  as 
he  stood  exulting  amid  the  ruins  of  ancient  civi- 
lization— it  carried  its  meliorating  power  into 
the  very  heart  of  the  Middle-Ages — it  spoke  in 
the  grand  Doctrines  of  the  Reformation — it 
came  with  the  Pilgrims  through  the  stormy 
ocean  of  December — it  is  in  the  van,  far  in  the 
van  of  the  noblest  efforts  and  the  best  hopes  of 
the  present  age.  That  Life  of  Christ!  Not 
alone  has  it  been  the  guiding  Light  of  nations. 
Not  alone  has  it  wrought  in  Grand  Reforms. 
It  has  risen  like  a  star  on  the  night  of  individual 
sin  and  sorrow.  It  has  spoken  in  tenderness 
to  the  broken  heart.  It  has  guided  the  straying 
to  the  Fold  of  Peace.  It  has  been  the  Stay 


THE    MISSION   OF    CHRISTIANITY.  107 

of  the  Poor  when  all  else  hath  broken,  and  it 
hath  been  remembered  when  all  other  memories 
have  failed. 

And  now  my  friends,  what  was  that  Life  that 
it  should  thus  be  above  all  other  lives  ? — that  it 
should  thus  enlighten  and  Bless  the  world  ?  It 
was  a  Revelation  of  the  Truth — of  the  Truth  in 
Love.  Yet,  it  was  not  merely — may  I  not  say, 
chiefly  the  Doctrine  Jesus  Taught  ? — it  was  the 
Life  he  lived,  that  marks  the  peculiarity  of  the 
Founder  of  Christianity,  that  makes  him  indeed 
the  Great  Teacher.  That  Life  was  a  Life  of 
Truth.  Is  Benevolence  a  Truth  ?  Is  it  opposed 
to  the  falsehood  of  uncharitableness  and  selfish- 
ness ?  Behold  there  living  Benevolence,  see  it 
manifested  in  the  healing  of  the  withered  limb, 
the  opening  of  the  blinded  eye.  Is  Meekness  a 
Truth  ?  Is  it  opposed  to  the  arrogance  and 
pride  that  lift  up  the  head  and  swell  the  heart  ? 
See  there  living  Meekness,  in  him  who  refused 
even  to  be  called  Good,  who,  though  pronounced 
excellent  from  the  heaven  of  heavens,  bore  the 
same  humility  alike  when  he  rode  upon  out- 
spread palms,  or  stood  amid  the  insults  of  Roman 
soldiery.  Is  Forgiveness  a  Truth  ?  Is  it  opposed 
to  the  Revenge  that  burns  to  the  marrow  of  the 
bones,  and  the  unrelenting  vindictiveness  that 
taunts  its  victim  in  the  very  agonies  of  dying 


108  THE   MISSION    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

torture  ?  Behold  there  such  Forgiveness  as  the 
world  has  never  seen,  bursting  from  him  who  is 
streaming  with  blood  for  those  who  had  pierced 
him. 

My  friends,  dp  you  not  see  that  Christianity 
is  a  Life,  that  the  Life  of  Christ  is  Christianity  ? 
There,  embodied  in  one  individual  is  the  Truth 
that  the  world  needs — the  world,  so  bound  and 
penetrated  with  falsehoods.  But  that  Life  was 
not  the  Truth  alone.  The  Truth ! — it  might  have 
broken  upon  the  ears  of  a  guilty  world,  in  tones 
of  thunder — it  might  have  been  revealed  in  a 
stern  messenger,  who  come  only  to  rebuke  and  to 
compel.  But  it  did  not  so  come.  Oh  !  no.  It 
came  in  LOVE.  It  came  with  a  Father's  Voice 
to  wandering,  erring  children.  All  that  had 
power  to  convince,  was  united  with  all  that  had 
power  to  win.  The  human  heart  has  been  so 
constituted,  that  in  order  to  a  cheerful  obedience 
to  duty  it  must  love  that  duty.  You  may  speak 
the  truth  to  yon  wretched  outcast.  But  you 
speak  it,  perhaps,  in  a  harsh  tone — you  speak  it 
with  a  virtue  awfully  severe.  But  he  is  steeled 
against  that.  He  has  learned  no  other  doctrine. 
He  has  experienced  from  the  world  harsh  treat- 
ment, and  he  has  lived  a  harsh  life  in  return. 
He  has  so  often  bared  his  bosom  to  the  storm  that 
it  has  become  callous.  But  now,  if  you  spoke 


THE    MISSION    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  109 

that  same  truth  in  love — if  you  speak  it  with  a 
manner  that  shows  that  you  sincerely  feel  for 
him,  that  you  still  sympathize  with  him  beneath 
all  his  wretchedness  and  all  his  scars,  he  is  not 
ready  for  that — the  voice  is  new  and  delightful, 
it  sounds  to  him  like  his  mother's  voice  heard  in 
days  of  childhood ;  he  has  met  no  one  since  in 
the  hard  and  selfish  world,  that  has  cared  for 
him,  until  now.  And  he  opens  his  heart  to  the 
truth  because  it  comes  in  love — it  comes  to  him 
not  merely  as  a  subject,  but  as  a  child. 

Now  such  we  deem  to  be  the  characteristic 
of  Christianity.  It  speaks  the  Truth,  but  it 
also  speaks  it  in  Love.  It  cares  for  men.  It 
seeks  not  only  their  obedience,  but  their  affec- 
tions. Other  religions  have  not  done  so.  They 
have  sought  to  appal  and  to  bind.  To  make  men 
good,  not  to  make  good  men.  As  though  good- 
ness were  something  extraneous,  that  can  be 
forced  upon  the  heart,  instead  of  a  genial  power 
that  of  itself  opens  and  enters  the  heart.  Men 
have  made  virtue  severe  and  Religion  awful.  And 
from  the  same,  or  from  similar  principles,  have 
proceeded  the  wrongs  of  government,  of  laws, 
of  institutions — the  wrongs  between  man  and 
man — the  falsehoods  of  society,  of  individual  life. 
Religion  having  been  exhibited  as  not  desirable 
in  itself,  men  have  been  pronounced  by  nature 


110  THE    MISSION    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

alien  from  Religion — as  creatures  that  must  be 
driven  into  obedience — as  selfish  beings  ready 
to  break  from  virtue  at  the  least  opportunity. 
So  Despotism  has  set  up  its  plea  to  rule  men 
with  a  rod  of  iron.  So  rigid  laws  and  awful 
penalties  have  been  instituted.  So  man  has 
grown  distrustful  of  man,  has  held  communion 
with  hate  and  fear  rather  than  love.  So  men 
have  placed  Religion  on  the  outside  and  kept 
a  rotten  observance.  So  man  has  been  brought 
to  think  of  a  verity  that  there  is  some  good  in 
sin,  and  thus  to  hug  to  his  bosom  a  deceitful  lie. 
I  have  not  time  to  enter  into  an  analysis  to 
show  the  very  legitimate  evolution  of  all  these 
evils  from  the  lack  of  confidence  in,  or  from  the 
the  ignorance  of  Love—from  the  lack  of  iden- 
tifying Religion  and  virtue  with  Goodness.  But 
I  am  convinced  that  what  the  world  has  needed, 
and  what  it  still  needs,  jn  order  to  its  deliver- 
ance from  the  falsehoods  under  which  it  groans, 
is  not  only  Truth,  but  Truth  uttered  in  the  spirit 
of  Love.  And  this,  I  say,  it  will  find  in  the  Life 
of  Christ.  There  is  the  Truth  spoken — mani- 
fested in  Love.  What  was  the  cause  of  Christ's 
coming  ?  We  have  it  plainly  declared — "  He 
so  Loved  the  world  that  He  sent  His  only-be- 
gotten Son."  In  Will,  in  Purpose,  He  who 
sent  and  he  who  was  Sent  were  One.  So  it 


THE    MISSION    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  Ill 

was  in  Love  that  Christ  came.  It  was  Love  that 
moved  in  all  his  Actions,  that  prompted  all  his 
Preachings,  that  breathed  in  all  his  Prayers,  that 
carried  him  through  that  suffering  Life,  that  bore 
him  through  that  painful  Death.  Christ's  Life 
was  the  Truth  manifested  in  Love.  To  speak 
the  Truth  in  Love,  is  the  mission  of  Christianity. 

We  have,  then,  arrived  at  these  results.  We 
have  seen  that  the  world  is  filled  with  falsehoods, 
for  such  are  the  errors  and  the  sins  under  which 
it  labors  both  in  individual  and  in  social  life — •• 
immediately  around  us,  and  abroad  through  the 
nations  of  the  earth.  We  have  seen,  again,  that 
the  agent  of  deliverance  from  those  errors  and 
sins  has  been  given — that  agent  being  the  Truth, 
revealed  in  nature,  revealed  in  reason  and  con- 
science, but  more  perfectly  and  effectually  em- 
bodied in  the  Life  of  Jesus  Christ — its  life  and 
its  efficiency  subsisting  not  only  on  account  of  the 
fulness  but  because  of  the  spirit  of  the  Reve- 
lation, that  spirit  being  Love. 

And  now,  as  we  look  around  us  at  the  sins 
and  the  errors  that  prevail  in  individual  action 
and  in  society — as  we  look  abroad  upon  ihe 
world,  lying  under  superstitions,  tyrannies,  and 
all  abominations,  are  we  not  constrained  to  ask, 
Why  is  it  so  ?  The  answer  is  ready — the  Truth 
has  not  been  spoken  in  Love  to  the  extent  that 


112  THE    MISSION    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

is  required.  The  Life  of  Christ,  with  its  mani- 
festations and  its  influences,  should  be  brought  to 
bear  more  upon  the  hearts  of  men.  That  Life 
has  been  long  in  the  world,  and  yet  how  little 
of  its  Mission  is  accomplished  !  How  have  men 
misinterpreted  and  neglected  it !  And  has  not 
the  neglect  often  been  the  result  of  the  misin- 
terpretation ?  Yes,  Christians  themselves  have 
not  understood  as  they  ought  the  Life  of  the 
Master.  Partially,  the  Truth  perhaps,  has  been 
spoken.  But  it  has  been  uttered  coldly  and  ab- 
stractly, veiled  in  dogmas,  encumbered  with 
mysteries,  linked  with  errors  and  abuses,  patron- 
ized by  bigotry,  fanaticism,  and  superstition. 
Men  have  not  spoken  it  in  its  simplicity,  in  its 
freedom — above  all,  they  have  not  let  it  gush 
from  hearts  warm  and  melting  with  Love.  And 
here  has  been  a  fruitful  source  of  the  comparative 
inefficiency  of  Christianity — its  comparative  in- 
efficiency, I  say — and  J  mean  by  this  its  ineffi- 
ciency compared  with  its  own  capacity,  not  with 
the  operation  of  other  systems. 

But  the  age  looks  brighter,  as  if  it  had  fallen 
in  the  small  hours  that  precede  the  morning. 
Christianity  is  beginning  to  be  better  understood. 
Men  discover  now  that  it  is  not  a  meagre  secta- 
rianism. That  it  is  quite  probable  that  John 
and  Peter  and  Paul  were  not  veritable  Baptists, 


THE    MISSION    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  113 

or  Methodists,  or  Universalists,  in  the  sectarian 
acceptation  of  these  terms — that  we  are  not  to 
clip  their  creed  to  suit  the  corners  of  our  notions  ; 
but  that  we  are  to  draw  our  Faith,  and  not  merely 
our  Faith  but  our  action,  from  the  deep,  exhaust- 
less  fountains  of  the  Truth  which  they  spoke  in 
Love.  It  is  beginning  to  be  seen  that  Christian- 
ity is  no  one  thing,  one  set  form — but  that  it  is 
all  true  things.  It  is  a  gift  of  Charity,  it  is  a 
Prayer,  it  is  a  Temperance  Reformation,  it  is  a 
Common-School  Education,  it  is  a  martyr's  sa- 
crifice for  the  right,  it  speaks  in  the  amenities 
of  every-day  life,  it  murmurs  with  notes  of  omen 
under  shameful  abuses  and  ancient  thrones,  it 
is  in  the  best  strains  of  the  poet,  the  deepest 
thought  of  the  philosopher,  the  noblest  aspiration 
of  the  philanthropist — it  is  each,  it  is  all  of  these ; 
and  still  it  is  something  more.  It  is  the  consum- 
mation of  human  nature  linked  with  the  Divine. 
It  is  the  perfection  of  the  human  soul,  ripe  with 
all  virtues,  redeemed  from  all  falsehood,  holding 
the  Troth  in  Love,  erect  and  free  yet  subject  to 
Christ  and  to  God. 

Now  there  are  two  parties  in  our  day,  as  in 
some  sense  there  always  have  been.  The  one 
is  conservative,  timid,  distrustful.  At  the  first 
announcement  of  a  novel  doctrine,  it  takes  the 
alarm  and  vociferates — "  The  Faith  of  our  Fa- 
10 


114  THE   MISSION    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

thers  !  The  Faith  of  our  Fathers !  Oh  !  for 
the  good  old  order  and  habits  of  the  Past."  It 
thus  evinces  that  it  has  no  idea  of  more  Truth — 
that  it  has  no  faith  in  progress — that  it  thinks 
all  virtue  and  all  right  to  consist  in  what  it  under- 
stands to  be  virtuous  and  right.  Truth  breaks 
in  every  day  from  the  heavens,  gleams  from  the 
bowels  of  the  earth,  opens  to  the  farthest  mind 
and  the  keenest  eye,  emanates  ever  with  a  more 
sublime  beauty  from  the  Life  of  Christ — but  still 
this  cry  rings  out,  "  Keep  the  Faith  of  our  Fa- 
thers !"  Our  Fathers  !  We  can  not  wear  their 
garments,  we  can  not  preserve  their  features, 
neither  can  we  think  their  thoughts,  nor  prevent 
the  sun  that  goes  over  us  from  shining  upon  new 
days.  The  Faith  of  our  Fathers  needs  not  our 
propping.  If  it  is  all  true,  it  will,  it  must  stand. 
If  anything  false  is  in  it  let  us  stand  clear  of  the 
rubbish  that  will  surely  be  shaken  from  it  in  the 
march  of  opinion.  Not  the  Faith  of  the  Fathers, 
but  "  The  TRUTH" — the  Truth  as  it  is  in  nature, 
the  Truth  as  it  is  in  reason  and  in  conscience, 
above  all  and  comprehensive  of  all — the  Truth 
as  it  is  in  Christ ;  this  is  the  cry  of  the  second 
party,  which  is  the  Progress  Party,  the  advancing 
Party,  the  Party  that  has  Faith  in  the  ultimate 
triumph  of  Goodness,  hope  for  man,  confidence 
in  the  power  of  Love,  belief  in  the  developement 


THE    MISSION    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  115 

and  perfection  of  the  race.  The  first-named 
Party,  the  Conservative  Party,  is  very  zealous 
for  old  institutions,  thinks  it  had  policy  to  give 
too  much  power  to  the  masses,  holds  on  to  the 
old  bloody  penalties,  is  suspicious  of  these  new 
reforms  that  talk  so  loudly  of  Love  and  Progress. 
The  second  Party,  the  Progress  Party,  trusts 
man  because  God  made  him,  spurns  the  old  dust- 
worn  parchments  that  men  call  Law  and  Right, 
reads  this  Law  and  this  Right  in  the  world- 
embracing  Gospel,  throws  by  the  chain  the  rack 
and  the  gibbet,  and  unfurls  to  the  winds  of  heaven 
the  banner  of  Truth  and  Love,  confident  that  the 
world  will  one  day  follow  it.  The  Conservative 
party,  one  would  think,  might  at  least  preserve 
pity  for  the  degradation  that  it  can  not  help,  and 
would  sorrow  when  something  dashes  the  hopes 
that  are  entertained  of  man's  advancement.  But 
it  is  not  so.  It  seems  to  have  a  selfish  interest 
at  stake.  It  has  taken  its  stand,  and  it  has  a 
pride  of  discernment  that  it  would  maintain.  It 
has  pronounced  these  hopes  fallacious,  these 
opinions  licentious,  these  doctrines  heretical, 
and  it  cares  more  for  victory  than  for  truth.  So, 
if  there  is  any  slip — if  here  and  there  love  seems 
to  fail,  or  a  man  abandons  his  principles,  or 
falsifies  their  influence ;  if  here  and  there  a  noble 
effort  is  unsuccessful,  or  a  fanatic  overacts  the 


116  THE    MISSION    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

truth — then  there  is  such  a  shout  that  its  old 
towers  rock  again,  and  its  grim  pictures  on  the 
wall  and  its  mouldering  parchments,  seem  to 
shake  with  laughter.  So  far  from  desponding, 
this  party  often  has  gleams  of  the  most  confident 
hope ;  and  when,  for  a  time,  as  is  now  the  case 
in  England,  there  seems  a  retrograde  movement 
— when  some  gifted  but  distrustful  minds,  dis- 
gusted and  sick  with  the  ultraisms  and  fanaticisms 
that  accompany  the  progressive  spirit,  swing 
away  back  to  the  old  grounds — then,  I  say,  there 
comes  a  gleam  of  confident  hope  for  this  Party, 
and  it  fancies  that  "  the  good,  old  times  are  com- 
ing back.'1  But  this  is  a  mistake.  The  light 
that  shines  upon  its  worn  altars  is  indeed  a  rising 
light,  but  the  Conservative  is  sitting  with  his 
back  to  the  sun  expecting  it  to  come  from  that 
quarter  of  the  heavens  to  which  he  is  looking, 
when  it  shines  from  that  point  from  which  he 
has  averted  his  head. 

I  will  not  limit  either  of  these  parties  to  the 
advocates  of  any  one  system,  or  of  any  sect.  In 
all  sects  there  are  men  who  sympathize  with 
both  parties,  sometimes  unconsciously.  But 
while  I  do  not  thus  restrict  the  operation  of 
these  two  principles,  still  it  seems  to  me  that 
the  latter,  the  progressive  principle,  the  hopeful 
principle,  the  principle  that  looks  with  a  genial 


THE    MISSION    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  117 

eye  upon  the  aspects  of  things,  and  waits  and 
labors  for  the  triumph  of  Love,  is  found  chiefly 
in  the  ranks  of  what  is  termed  Liberal  Christi- 
anity. Yes,  this  seems  peculiarly  the  Mission 
of  Liberal  Christianity — to  break  from  the  errors 
of  ages,  to  be  free  yet  obedient,  to  be  true  yet  to 
love.  Speaking  the  Truth  in  Love,  is  the  Mis- 
sion of  Liberal  Christianity.  It  has,  then,  a 
great,  a  hopeful  Mission.  It  has  the  Element 
which  the  world  needs,  for  which  it  is  waiting. 
Oh !  how  long  it  has  waited.  By  its  old  and 
blood-dimmed  altars,  beneath  its  galling  chains, 
bound  in  its  fearful  wickedness,  penetrated  to  its 
very  core  with  sin — how  does  it  wait  for  the 
Truth  to  be  spoken  in  Love  !  Who  shall  speak 
thus  ?  Every  one  who  has  the  Truth — who 
loves  God,  and  who  loves  man.  In  your  sphere 
of  action  hearer,  in  your  opportunities  and  capa- 
city, you  are  called  upon  to  speak  it.  Be  pre- 
pared, by  truly  loving  God  and  man,  to  speak  it. 


10* 


DISCOURSE  V, 


THE  LAW  OF  CHRISTIAINTY  IN  THE  HUMAN 
SOUL. 


And  every  one  that  loveth,  is  born  of  God,  and 

knoweth  God.  I.  John  iv.  7. 


IN  one  of  these  discourses  I  have  spoken  of 
the  Work  of  Christianity  in  the  human  soul, 
showing  that  it  raises  man  above  the  necessity 
for  outward  laws  and  institutions.  I  would  re- 
mark now  that  the  great  pre-requisite  to  such  a 
disposition  as  will  insure  this  state,  is,  if  I  may 
so  speak,  the  action  of  man  in  unison  with  God. 
But,  in  order  to  produce  this  harmony  of  the  hu- 
man with  the  Divine  Will,  it  is  necessary  to 
know  God,  and  in  order  to  know  Him,  it  is 
necessary  to  expand  our  affections  and  elevate 
our  aims — in  one  word,  to  be  born  of  Him.  But 
there  is  yet  to  be  considered  the  great  Element 
that  quickens  this  moral  life  and  vigor  in  the 
soul.  This  is  in  fact  the  LAW  of  Christianity 
only  the  work  of  which  we  have  been  consider- 
ing. What,  then,  is  that  Element  that  shall 
awaken  us  from  selfish  and  sensual  pursuits — 
from  indifference  and  sin,  and  excite  in  us  a 


THE  LAW  OF  CHRISTIANITY,    ETC.  119 

high  standard  of  right,  a  self-sacrificing  spirit, 
broad  views  and  lofty  aims  ? 

I  answer,  that  Element  is  LOVE.  The  simple 
alphabet  of  the  whole  matter  is  LOVE.  The 
Text  consisting  of  but  a  few  brief  words,  is  rich 
with  the  unction  of  Religion,  and  lays  open  with 
one  stroke,  all  that  is  great  and  real  in  philoso- 
phy. The  proud  intellect,  searching  after  God, 
can  not  find  him  out.  That  He  /s,  it  may  know. 
What  He  is,  it  can  not  discover.  Its  last  analysis 
stops  far  short  of  the  great  reality,  and  baffled 
and  perplexed  it  is  forced  to  acknowledge  a 
mystery  that  comes  in  every  breath  of  wind, 
quivers  in  every  leaf,  and  sparkles  in  every  star. 
It  is  forced  to  acknowledge  its  ignoranee — and, 
if  it  would  know  God,  must  bow  down  like  the 
little  child  and  love. 

Each  man  projects  his  own  idea  of  God.  But, 
it  is  plain,  if  that  idea  is  a  false  one  he  shuts  out 
the  Deity  from  his  view,  and  worships  in  error. 
Nations  and  individuals  have  done  this.  They 
have  deified  the  worst  passions  of  the  human 
heart.  God  has  been  regarded  as  dark  and 
vengeful,  because  dark  and  vengeful  sentiments 
were  in  their  own  souls.  Until  Christianity 
came,  men  did  not  know  God.  Altars  were  red 
with  blood,  and  flamed  with  sacrifice.  Religion 
was  made  an  instrument  of  crushing  power  or  of 


120  THE  LAW   OF  CHRISTIANITY 

paralyzing  terror.  Man  felt  in  his  own  heart  the 
agitation  of  strong  and  cruel  passions,  and  he  ex- 
tended these  to  infinity,  and  made  a  God,  or  gods, 
before  whom  he  bowed  in  superstitious  terror. 
I  speak  more  particularly  now,  of  those  to  whom 
no  Revelation,  so  far  as  we  know,  came.  And 
even  with  the  Jews,  the  FATHER  was  not  fully 
revealed.  So  much  for  those  nations  in  whom 
the  sentiments  were  developed  rather  than  the 
intellect.  If  we  turn  to  the  versatile  and  intel- 
lectual Greek,  still  we  find  not  the  true  concep- 
tion of  God.  The  hand  of  genius  could  mould 
the  marble  into  a  beautiful  likeness  of  grace  and 
power  and  human  symmetry — but  still  the  con- 
ception was  voluptuous  or  earthly.  We  had  the 
languishing  Venus,  or  the  manly  Appolo,  or  the 
brawny  Hercules.  But  there  was  none  of  that 
rapt  spirituality  that  glows  in  the  face  of  a  Catho- 
lic Saint,  or  that  benignant  Love  that  has  been 
transmitted  to  us  in  pictures  of  our  Savior.  As 
to  their  philosophic  idea  of  God,  some  few  minds, 
here  and  there,  may  possibly  have  risen  to  a  true 
conception  ;  but  with  more  it  was  a  mysterious 
and  intelligent  Force,  or  a  Being  to  whom  they 
could  never  rise  with  the  sublimity  of  the  ancient 
Hebrew.  God  was  not  truly  known,  until  Christ 
came.  It  needed  an  embodied  manifestation  of 
the  Deity,  and  we  have  it  in  Jesus.  Behind  the 


IN  THE  HUMAN  SOUL.  121 

Intelligent  Force  of  old  Philosophers — behind 
the  sublime  Omnipotence  that  the  Hebrew  ac- 
knowledged— Christ  points  us  to  a  FATHER,  and 
Christianity  bases  its  appeals  to  our  confidence, 
on  the  fact  that  it  is  a  Revelation  that  satisfies 
the  best  affections  of  the  human  heart.  Thus  it 
is  peculiarly — a  Religion  of  the  affections  ;  not 
of  the  passions,  but  of  the  benevolent  and  tender 
emotions  that  quiver,  at  times,  in  the  hardest 
hearts,  and  are  never  utterly  quenched  in  the 
roughest  collisions  with  the  world.  I  say,  these 
emotions  are  in  the  heart,  though  they  are  not 
always  acted  upon,  nor  carried  out  in  consistent 
and  efficient  works.  Therefore  it  is  that  men, 
although  they  have  had  the  Christian  Revelation, 
yet  entertain  erroneous  ideas  of  God.  Still, 
with  many,  God  is  not  the  Father  but  the  Sove- 
reign— not  the  Merciful  but  the  Vengeful.  Is 
not  this  owing  to  the  fact  that  these  sentiments 
are  uppermost  in  their  own  hearts,  and  have 
become  sanctified  by  usage?  Why  is  it  that 
views  of  God  so  contrary  to  the  Christian  Reve- 
lation should  prevail  ?  Do  we  not  find  the  cause 
in  the  fact  that  Christians,  as  a  body,  have  not 
and  do  not  love  as  they  ought  ?  Take  Ecclesias- 
tical history,  open  it,  and  read  its  pages  all 
smeared  with  blood  and  cruelty.  Read  the  long 
conflicts  of  dispute,  the  denunciations  and  the 


122  THE   LAW  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

executions,  the  doom  of  heretics  and  martyrs. 
See  men  who  have  come  out  from  Pagan  error, 
emulating  Pagan  cruelty.  And  can  you  expect 
a  lofty  conception  of  the  Deity  in  such  a  state  of 
things  ?  Come  down  to  the  present  day — take 
the  selfishness,  the  angry,  vengeful  sentiments, 
the  sensual  and  narrow  ideas  that  prevail ;  and 
tell  me  if  you  would  not  expect  that  contracted 
and  partial  views  of  God  should  prevail  also  ? 
This  is  the  great  practical  point.  In  order  to 
know  God,  men  must  Love — Love  as  Christ 
Loved,  who  was  the  brightest  manifestation  of 
God.  They  must  grow  in  Love,  and  they  will 
grow  in  Knowledge. 

To  perceive  that  God  is  Love,  and  therefore 
that  the  idea  of  Him  that  is  projected  by  a  Loving 
soul  is  the  true  idea,  surely  requires  no  demon- 
stration. All  around  us  is  that  Love — manifested 
in  the  garniture  of  the  heavens,  speaking  in  the 
still,  green  woods,  gushing  in  streams  from  the 
mountain,  and  breathing  in  the  rejoicing  winds. 
All  nature,  like  one  great  organ  set  to,  melody, 
utters  it  with  many  notes  that  peal  and  swell 
into  a  sublime  anthem,  louder  than  the  noise  of 
many  waters.  But  we  have  seen  that  it  has  not 
been  left  to  nature  alone  to  make  this  manifesta- 
tion. Christ  makes  it,  and  in  him  G  od  is  revealed 
the  clearest  to  us.  It  has  been  beautifully  said 


IN  THE  HUMAN   SOUL.  123 

that  "  Nature  gives  us  the  scale,  but  Christ  the 
Spirit  of  the  Deity."  Nature,  with  its  extent 
and  its  grandeur,  with  its  vast  and  varied  works, 
with  its  far-reaching  compass  in  which  the  mind 
becomes  lost  and  bewildered,  with  its  colossal 
dimensions,  and  its  irresistible  forces  ;  nature 
helps  to  form  in  us  some  dim  notion  of  the  Power 
and  the  Infinity  of  the  Being  who  made  it.  But 
Jesus  shows  us  ivhat  that  Being  is  who  made 
nature — who  is  its  Pervading  Soul.  Nature 
displays  God's  Attributes,  Christ  reveals  His 
Essence.  Yes,  that  Being  who  rolls  the  fearful 
mass  of  worlds  along,  and  speaks  in  terrible 
thunder,  and  decrees  in  swift  lightning,  and  ex- 
hibits His  Power  in  the  up-tossed  ocean,  and  His 
Greatness  in  the  mountain  and  the  star ; — that 
Being  is  Kind,  like  him  who  healed  the  sick — 
Tender,  like  him  who  wept  for  Lazarus — Bene- 
volent, like  him  who  went  about  doing  good — 
Gentle,  like  him  who  laid  his  hand  on  the  heads 
of  little  children — Forgiving,  like  him  who 
Prayed  upon  the  Cross.  "  Nature  gives  us  the 
scale,  Christ  the  Spirit  of  the  Deity  ;"  and  from 
this  do  we  know  that  he  whose  idea  of  God 
springs  from  a  loving  spirit,  knows  God  in  so 
far  as  he  loves. 

We  know  a  great  artist  by  his  work — but  the 
more  we  sympathize  with  him  who  is  seen  through 


124  THE  LAW  OF   CHRISTIANITY 

his  work,  the  better  we  shall  know  him.  Through 
the  sculptured  marble,  breathes  the  undying 
spirit  of  genius.  In  every  lineament  it  is  im- 
pressed. But  the  man  without  genius  looks 
upon  it,  and  calls  it  beautiful,  perhaps — thinks 
it  a  nice  imitation — dwells  upon  the  naturalness 
of  a  finger,  or  an  eye — and  passes  on.  But  the 
man  of  genius  comes  there,  and  makes  it  a  study. 
He  sees  in  the  whole  the  great  spirit  of  a  master. 
In  some  unnoticed  curve  he  detects  it — he  traces 
long  nights  of  thought,  and  painful  toil,  and  tri- 
umphant success,  in  some  minute  member,  or  in 
the  attitude  of  some  unregarded  limb.  And  as 
he  looks  upon  it,  his  own  genius  catches  fire. 
He  communes  with  that  artist — with  that  artist's 
spirit — whose  body,  long  ages  ago,  has  moulder- 
ed in  his  grave ;  and  he  goes  forth  himself  to 
throw  out  some  royal  creation  of  the  soul.  There 
is  something  more  needed,  then,  than  a  mere 
perception  of  the  work  of  that  artist,  to  know 
him.  There  must  be  sympathy  with  him — a 
congeniality  with  the  spirit  that  breathes  through 
that  chiselled  stone. 

So,  my  friends,  using  the  comparison  reverent- 
ly, we  may  say  that  we  know  the  Great  Creator 
as  we  imbibe  His  Spirit.  The  mere  philosopher 
looks  only  upon  the  outward  work.  He  notices 
the  wise  adjustments,  the  beautiful  order,  and  is 


IN  THE  HUMAN   SOUL.  125 

satisfied  that  the  world  had  a  Maker.  But  he 
knows  not  the  Maker,  because  he  has  none  of  His 
Spirit.  Nature  is  not  half  so  full  a  revelation 
to  him,  as  to  the  shepherd,  who,  in  the  night- 
watch,  sees  a  tireless  Benignity  burning  in  all 
the  stars,  and,  as  his  soul  rises  in  adoration  to 
that  Goodness,  feels  that  God  is  very  near  to 
him.  The  Bigot  recognizes  in  Christ  a  Mani- 
festation of  God.  Even  he  must  feel  that  there 
is  something  Divine  in  that  unwearied  Kindness, 
and  that  quenchless  Mercy — but  he  loves  not. 
Dark  and  bitter  feelings  are  in  his  heart — there- 
fore, dark  and  bitter  notions  rise  and  cloud  his 
perception,  and  God  is  hid  behind  a  veil.  But 
the  humble  Publican  detects  in  that  Forgiving 
Mercy  that  has  pardoned  his  sins,  something  of 
the  Nature  of  God ;  and  the  filial  love  enkindled 
in  his  soul  reveals  to  him  the  Father. 

But,  moreover,  we  may  exhaust  the  genius  of 
the  human  artist.  We  may  rise  to  the  percep- 
tion of  higher  genius  than  his.  But  we  cannot 
exhaust  our  knowledge  of  God.  The  finite  must 
ever  find  something  beyond  it  and  above  it  in  the 
Infinite.  The  more  we  love,  the  more  we  shall 
know  of  it — but  we  may  increase  in  love  for 
countless  ages,  and  while  the  more  we  shall 
know,  more  will  lie  beyond  us  to  be  known. 
How  far  are  men  from  exhausting,  so  to  speak, 
11 


126  THE  LAW  OF   CHRISTIANITY 

the  mind  of  Christ !  As  we  love  we  know  more 
of  it.  We  may  say  that  Christ  is  revealed  to  the 
men  of  this  age,  with  a  Beauty  and  a  Power 
scarcely  ever  before  apprehended.  Hence  it  is, 
that  men  now  turn  so  much  to  the  Internal  Evi- 
dences for  Christianity ,  especially  to  the  Evidence 
exhibited  in  Christ  himself.  Why  is  this  ?  Be- 
cause the  spirit  of  Love  is  more  prevalent  than 
it  was,  glowing  in  noble  Reforms,  and  breaking 
out  in  schemes  of  human  melioration.  As  we 
love  we  progress  in  knowledge  of  Christ,  and, 
through  him,  in  knowledge  of  God.  Christ  has 
always  been  the  same,  but  he  has  not  always 
been  apprehended  in  the  same  degree — hence, 
the  errors  and  mal-practices  of  Christians. 
But  the  moment  men  begin  to  perceive  some- 
thing incumbent  upon  them  as  Christians,  be- 
side sectarian  disputes  and  war  for  forms  and 
creeds — the  moment  men  seize  the  philan- 
thropic spirit  of  the  Gospel,  and  carry  it  out 
— that  moment  they  begin  to  apprehend  Chris- 
tianity better,  and  Christ,  and  God.  They  rise 
then,  from  selfishness  to  philanthropy,  from 
sensuality  to  spiritual  life,  from  low  motives 
of  expediency  to  unshaken  adherence  to  the 
Good,  the  Right  and  the  True,  from  worldli- 
ness  to  devotion  and  faith — and  so  become 
Born  of  God.  Then  they  begin  to  Know  Him 


IN  THE  HUMAN   SOUL.  127 

— to  see,  that  He  is  not  Power  merely,  or  In- 
telligence merely,  or  a  Sovereign  merely ;  but 
that  He  is  Love.  Then  they  are  incited  to 
to  act  in  concert  with  Him — to  love  the  Good 
for  its  own  sake — to  live  from  the  Right  and 
the  Holy,  as  the  highest  elements  and  forms 
of  existence  ;  and  then,  they  need  not  human 
laws,  or  outward  institutions — they  "become 
laws  unto  themselves."  "  For  every  one  that 
Loveth,  is  Born  of  God,  and  Knoweth  God." 

Thus,  my  friends,  we  have  traced  out  this 
great  Law  of  Christianity  in  the  human  soul, 
and  indicated  its  operation.  Does  it  not,  at 
once,  mark  Christianity  as  a  peculiar,  a  Di- 
vine Religion  1  Thus  it  came,  uttering  no 
forms,  entering  into  no  details — but  giving  to 
the  world  a  great  PRINCIPLE,  a  Principle  that 
must  do  for  all  times  and  all  lands,  for  all 
classes  and  developements  of  men— a  Principle 
that  acted  upon  and  carried  out,  must  banish 
wrong  from  the  earth,  and  sin — must  raise 
man  to  a  knowledge  of  God,  to  harmony,  in 
all  his  action,  with  the  Divine  Will — the  high- 
est point  to  which  he  can  be  raised,  yet  the 
point  to  which  he  is  called  by  all  the  dispensa- 
tions of  God  that  surround  him,  by  the  Like- 
ness in  which  he  was  formed,  by  the  capacities 
of  his  nature,  by  the  Mandate — "  Be  ye  per* 


128  THE  LAW  OP   CHRISTIANITY 

feet,  even  as  your  Father  who  is  in  heaven  is 
Perfect." 

But  alas  !  my  friends,  we  are  far  back  from 
this  consummation.  How  few  are  they  who 
even  comprehend  the  ideas  of  our  best  Re- 
forms !  We  wonder  that  men  will  resist  the 
appeals  that  these  make.  "  How  can  they  be 
deaf  to  reason  and  to  benevolence,"  we  say. 
"  How  can  they  be  blind  to  palpable  facts !" 
But  we  do  not  go  far  enough  in  our  considera- 
tion— we  do  not  look  deep  enough.  Men  do 
not  comprehend  the  spirit  of  these  Reforms, 
because  they  do  not  know  God.  They  do  not 
Love,  and,  therefore,  they  have  wrong  concep- 
tions of  Him.  Here  is  the  point.  You  may  trace 
back  the  opposition  to  these  Reforms,  to  man's 
Religious  notions.  If  they  do  not  see  God  aright, 
they  do  not  see  the  economy  of  His  Government 
right,  they  do  not  look  upon  man  aright.  Hence, 
these  schemes  of  human  melioration,  this  confi- 
dence in  the  power  of  love,'this  appeal  to  the  af- 
fections, is  to  them  all  unintelligible.  They  have 
not  got  on  so  far.  To  them  retaliatory  penal- 
ties and  severe  laws,  and  arbitrary  institutions, 
seem  right,  because  their  ideas,  of  these  spring 
from  their  fundamental  conceptions  of  God. 
A  great  work  is  yet  to  be  wrought  in  them. 
Their  dispositions  are  to  be  wholly  changed. 


IN  THE  HUMAN  SOUL.  129 

They  are  to  be  taught  to  love — then  will  they 
be  born  of  God — then  will  they  know  Him — • 
then  will  they  act  as  He  Acts,  for  the  good  of 
all,  even  of  the  unthankful  and  the  evil — act  in 
Love — act  in  the  spirit  of  universal  benevo- 
lence. 

Moreover :  we  must  not,  in  our  Eeforms, 
endeavor  to  forestall  the  gradual  progress  of 
the  soul.  We  must  not  remove  all  restraints 
from  the  criminally-disposed,  nor  from  the 
licentious  and  the  passionate — for  the  very 
reason  that  they  are  criminally-disposed,  and 
licentious  and  passionate.  They  must  first  be 
taught  to  Love — the  desire  to  do  wrong  must 

o  o 

be  eradicated  from  their  hearts — they  must  be 
Born  of  God  and  must  know  God.  Then  no 
restraints  will  be  needed.  Then  human  laws 
will  be  superfluous. 

Look  again,  at  the  Religion  too  common, 
even  in  Christendom.  What  a  narrow  and 
low  principle  it  is  !  A  system  of  selfish  con- 
sideration, in  which  so  much  reward  is  to  be 
rendered,  for  so  much  good  performed — and 
so  much  punishment  meted  out  for  so  much 
bad  conduct.  There  is  hardly  any  conception 
of  the  fact  that  Goodness  is  to  be  loved  for  its 
own  sake — that  the  white-robe  and  the  palm- 
crown  intrinsically  belong  to  it,  and  are  not 
11* 


130  THE  LAW  OF   CHRISTIANITY 

outward  and  material  things.  Men  do  not  seem 
to  realize  that  it  is  the  sinful  desire — the  low, 
corrupt  ideal — that  is  wrong,  that  brings  its 
own  punishment  with  it ;  and  that  the  very 
existence  of  these  material  and  selfish  notions 
of  reward  and  punishment,  marks  the  indwell- 
ing of  such  a  desire,  of  such  an  ideal.  Hence, 
we  hear  men  say — "  If  there  was  no  hell,  I 
would  give  full  licence  to  sin" — "  If  this,  or 
that  person  goes  to  heaven,  it  is  no  heaven  for 
me."  How  little  do  they  know  of  the  spirit 
of  true  Religion !  If  there  was  no  hell  you 
would  commit  sin  T  Why  do  you  not  thrust 
your  hand  into  the  scorching  flame  1  Plainly 
because  in  the  very  act  there  is  torment,  and 
you  have  no  desire  to  suffer  it.  So  is  it  with 
sin.  In  the  very  act  of  sin  you  suffer  and  are 
degraded.  You  do  not  wish  to  go  to  heaven, 
if  this  or  that  person  is  there  1  Do  you  not 
know  that  it  would  not  be  heaven  if  you  were 
there  with  such  a  disposition  1  Low  and  nar- 
row, Oh !  my  friend,  are  your  ideas  of  Reli- 
gion, which  is  the  spontaneous  offspring  of 
Love — the  operation  of  the  Law  of  Christian- 
ity in  the  human  soul.  It  is  living  Holy  and 
Good  and  Pure  for  the  very  sake  of  these 
things — living  a  saintly  life,  or  dying  a  mar- 
tyr's death,  content  to  know  and  be  at  one 


IN  THE  HUMAN  SOUL.  131 

with  God — feeling  that  outward  deprivation  is 
not  the  greatest  evil,  that  punishment  is  a  light 
matter  compared  with  sin,  that  Heaven  is 
where  the  pure  and  loving  heart  is,  for  then 
Christ  is  there,  and  God. 

From  these  ideas  of  Religion  that  issue  from 
a  lack  of  love,  we  have  the  formal  hypocrite. 
How  smooth  he  lives  in  the  glare  of  the  world 
— how  hideous  are  the  inmates  of  his  heart, 
could  you  uncover  that  heart !  He  is  content 
\vithforms.  No  thirst  is  in  him  for  real  good, 
and  therefore  he  seeks  not  the  Living  Spring, 
but  is  content  to  drink  from  the  shallow,  muddy 
pool  of  outward  observance,  and  to  confine  the 
whole  of  his  Religion  to  ceremony.  He  does 
not  feel  Religion  to  be  a  Life,  to  be  the  highest 
Life,  to  be  a  union  with  God.  How  should 
he  1 — he  does  not  know  God.  How  should  he 
know  God  1 — he  has  never  been  Born  of  Him. 
How  should  he  be  Born  of  Him  1 — he  has  never 
Loved. 

Hence,  too,  we  have  the  Bigot,  the  stern- 
faced,  bitter-souled  Bigot.  He  claims  to  be 
Religious.  Where  in  him  are  the  tender  mer- 
cies of  Religion!  Hear  him  denounce  and 
doom.  Hear  him  rave  and  vent  his  spite.  And 
yet,  he  claims  to  be  Religious.  Religious ! — 
the  Religious  man  should  imitate  God,  as  far 


132  THE  LAW  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

as  may  be.  But  does  that  Bigot  imitate  God  1 
We  shudder  at  the  thought !  Is  he  like  that 
Christ — that  Meek  and  Loving  Christ  1  What 
a  comparison !  And  yet  he  must  be  like  Christ, 
ere  he  is  Religious,  truly  Religious.  Then  he 
must  be  changed.  Yes — changed  indeed.  This 
bitterness  must  all  be  quenched.  This  vengeful 
heart  must  grow  soft.  A  new  element,  as  it 
were,  mnst  be  kindled  in  his  nature.  He  must 
Love.  Then  he  will  be  Born  of  God.  Then 
he  will  know  Him.  Then  he  will  act  in  union 
with  Him.  And  what  an  altered  man  he  will 
be  then !  All  kindly  now,  so  lately  full  of 
wrath — that  once-curling  lip  now  pleading  with 
mercy's  words— that  once-flashing  eye  now 
raining  pitying  tears  !  That  narrow  soul,  mad 
with  the  love  of  sect  and  dooming  all  beyond 
its  rigid  pale,  now  almost  bursting  its  bounds 
to  clasp  all  men  as  brethren,  and  lead  them  to 
their  Father  and  their  God. 

Once  more :  Behold  the  indifference  to  Re» 
ligious  life,  and  to  spiritual  interests  that 
abounds !  Here  is  a  great  evil.  If  men  do  not 
run  wild  with  fanaticism,  or  become  savage 
with  bigotry,  or  live  in  gross  and  hypocritical 
formality,  or  with  narrow  and  sensual  notions 
of  religious  things,  they  are  prone  to  be  apa- 
thetic as  to  all  Religion,  To  them  it  is  a  dull 


IN  THE  HUMAN   SOUL.  133 

and  gloomy  name — an  old,  trite  word — a  super- 
stitious whim — an  unwelcome  and  disagreeable 
thought.  How  can  it  be  so  1  Religion ! — 
the  communion  of  the  soul  with  God — its 
highest  life  and  its  greatest  consolation — its 
guide  in  doubt,  its  support  in  sorrow,  its  hope 
in  death,  its  "  calm  sunshine  and  joy"  in  all 
this  fluctuating  and  transitory  world — the  no- 
blest developement  of  its  being.  Why,  one 
would  think  that  men  would  leap  to  it,  and 
bind  it  to  their  hearts,  and  love  it  and  guard  it, 
as  their  richest  treasure.  Alas  !  it  is  not  so. 
Men  do  not  Love.  Yes,  they  love — but  they 
love  their  worldly  treasures — love  earth  and 
time  and  sense — love  the  indulgence  of  desire, 
and  the  excitement  of  passion — love  the  body 
and  its  gauds — love  gain  and  pleasure  and 
fame  ; — but  feel  no  throbbing  for  the  soul's 
life.  To  them  Heaven  is  no  reality,  and  God 
no  present  Father.  They  are  both  far  off  and 
unseen ;  while  earth  and  its  joys  can  be  grasped, 
and  these,  they  virtually  deem,  are  enough. 
They  must  learn  to  Love.  Learn  to  look  apon 
this  outer  world,  and  see  what  is  behind  all  its 
varied  and  beautiful  creations.  A  changeless, 
tireless  Love  is  there — a  Goodness  that  is 
inexhaustible — a  Providence  that  never  sleeps. 
They  must  learn  to  look  at  Christ  and  study 


134  THE  LAW  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

his  Character,  beautiful  in  its  Gentleness,  un- 
wearied in  its  self-sacrifice,  sealing  its  Love 
for  man  with  Blood — Innocent  Blood.  They 
must  consider  these  until  Love  is  kindled  in 
their  hearts,  and  then  they  will  be  Born  of 
God,  and  then  they  will  know  Him,  and  then 
their  own  souls  will  throb  to  His  Goodness 
and  move  in  harmony  with  His  Will.  Then 
this  indifference  will  disappear,  this  cold- 
ness will  melt,  this  sensuality  will  be  sha- 
ken off,  this  sin  will  die — and  men  will  be  in- 
deed, the  Children  of  God. 

When  shall  that  time  come  1  Hearer,  when 
shall  it  come  to  your  soul,  and  to  mine  1  The 
work  may  go  on  in  our  souls  to-day,  if  we  will 
only  Love — Love  God,  love  men,  love  all  good- 
ness, earnestly,  constantly,  sincerely.  Is  there 
nothing  that  calls  for  this  Love  1  Oh !  every 
thing  calls  for  it,  if  we  will  only  anoint  our  eyes 
and  see — if  we  will  only  unstop  our  ears  and 
hear.  From  the  Providences  of  life,  our  Father 
calls  us — from  the  agony  of  the  Cross,  our  Sa- 
vior urges  us.  We  are  called,  we  are  urged 
to  do  what  1  To  suffer  and  sorrow  1  To  part 
with  any  thing  that  is  truly  precious  and 
good"?  No  :  only  to  Love.  A  child  can  com- 
ply with  this  requirement — a  man  can  do  no 
more.  Only  to  Love,  To  Love  Him  Who 


Ifc  THE  HUMAN  SOUL.  135 

has  so  long  loved  us — to  Love  Him  who 
Avatches  over  us  when  we  sleep,  Who  keeps  us 
while  we  wake— to  Love  HIM  ; — and  for  what 
end  1  For  His  Good  1  He  needeth  not  our 
offerings.  We  are  called  and  urged  to  Love 
Him,  for  our  own  good — to  Love  Him  that  we 
may  be  Born  of  Him — that  we  may  know  Him. 
Hearer,  this  is  thy  great  end.  Wealth  avails 
thee  nothing  here,  learning  is  powerless,  honors 
and  lustres  pale  and  die.  But  to  rich  and  poor, 
to  the  happy  and  the  desolate,  to  all  men  as 
Children  of  One  great  Father,  a  Blessed  Privi- 
lege is  given — even  to  be  perfect  as  he  is  Per- 
fect. Who  will  not  heed  this  privilege  1  This 
is  Religion,  this  is  wealth  and  honor,  this  is 
knowledge.  Experience  teaches  it,  nature  re- 
veals it,  Christ  proclaims  it,  Heaven  flings 
back  its  flashing  gates  and  repeats  it — He  that 
Loveth,  is  Born  of  God,  and  knoweth  God. 

Have  we  yet  material  ideas  of  Heaven — do 
we  dwell  chiefly  on  its  crystal  splendor,  its 
green  palms  and  its  golden  streets"  1  Let  us 
remember  that  Heaven  is  purity  and  spirituali- 
ty and  holiness  pervaded  by  Love. 

•'Love  is  the  grace  that  keeps  its  power 
In  all  the  Courts  above  ; 

There  Faith  and  Hope  are  known  no  more, 
But  saints  forever  LOVE. 


136  THE  LAW  OF   CHRISTIANITY 

Yes  Hope  having  its  best  anticipations  reali- 
zed need  not  pass  the  radiant  gates.  Faith  that 
glowed  brightest  in  the  hour  of  desolation,  and 
that  soared  heavenward  from  the  memorials  of 
death  and  change,  Faith  shall  be  dissolved  in 
vision.  But  Love  can  never  pass  away.  It  is 
the  element  of  Eternal  Life.  Even  here  we 
may  breathe  and  commence  its  immortality. 
He  that  Loveth,  is  Born  of  God,  and  knoweth 
God." 


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